Stockholm Syndrome
by Tiana-P
Summary: With the return of two past enemies, a new Agent and another couple of close to death experiences, what is going to be the outcome? TATE all the way. McGabby and of course Gibbs for the humor. Sequel to 'Chicken Pox'.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey!**

**So I'm back with a new story! It's the sequel to 'Chicken Pox'. I hope it lives up to your expectations and to my previous story! A lot of TATE and McGabby here!**

**Anyways – let's get it started!**

**Please R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**

When Kate walked into the bullpen that Monday, she was honestly not surprised to see Tony already there.

It had been 2 months since the Jack incident, and the subject of it hardly ever came up. Although if it did, she was able to brush it off and joke about it.

'Hey. Where's McGee gone?' Kate asked as she went to her desk, taking into account the Probie's desk with the gear present.

'Hey, Kate. Yeah, I'm good, thanks for asking.' Tony joked. She looked over at him to where he stood in front of Gibbs' desk, already fascinated by something in his hands that he didn't even bother to look up at her as he spoke.

'Sorry. How are you?' she asked, walking up to him. She slid an arm around his waist as he leaned down for a kiss.

'I'm all good now.' He smiled at her. Kate couldn't help but to smile back.

They had spent the Saturday together, and Sunday morning naturally, but then Kate had a 'date' with Abby, which she had to go to, even though Tony tried to persuade her not to.

'What you doing?' Kate finally asked, reaching out with her other hand to see what was in Tony's hand.

'Do you know what this is, Kate?' he asked her as she pulled away, giving up on the task before he asked her.

'It looks like an iPod to me, Tony.' She quipped in an innocent voice. He gave her a glare as he approached her desk.

'Ha ha, Katie. I meant, do you know _who's_ this is?'

'Is it yours?' she tried.

'Yeah right.' He scoffed. 'Mine's not this tiny. Anyway, back to more serious matters,' now it was Kate's turn to scoff. 'It's Gibbs'!' he exclaimed. Kate looked up at him as he sat on the edge of her desk, facing her.

'Seriously?'

'Yup!'

'But Gibbs _hates_ technology! He can barely use his cell phone!' she informed him.

'Yeah, I know, Kate! That's why I'm surprised too!'

'Why would he have an iPod? I doubt Gibbs listens to music that's downloadable.' Kate murmured.

'Let's find out!' Tony jumped up, sounding like a kid at Christmas.

'Oh, Tony, I don't think that's a good idea, honey.' Kate warned him.

'I'm just going to check quickly. Gibbs'll never know!' he told her as he plugged it into McGee's iPod stand.

'Gibbs knows about _everything_ that happens in here, Tony.' She reminded him.

'C'mon Kate. You sound like you don't _wanna_ know what's on here.' He looked at her briefly before she sighed and turned to her computer.

'Just don't get me into it when Gibbs is about to kill you.' Kate said, sighing.

'Yuh-huh.' Tony replied absentmindedly. 'I wonder if the Doc bought him this.'

'Ew, Tony! You would think that!' Kate exclaimed. Tony looked up at her, chortling.

'Looks like my dear Katie has her mind in the gutter once again.' He sang. Kate gave him a glare.

'Must've caught it from you.' She shot back. Tony opened his moth to say something before shutting it and shrugging, turning his attention back to the iPod in front of him.

'C'mon, c'mon!' he begged the computer, looking out for Gibbs all the while. 'Yes!' his exclamation claimed Kate's attention. She looked at him as he started to smile like a maniac.

'What's on it then?' she asked. He never took his eyes off of the screen.

'If you wanna know, you can come here and see for yourself.' Kate thought about it before looking over her shoulder at the elevator and sighing. She got up and crossed over to McGee's desk.

'Ok. So what is i- whoa!' Kate broke off. She was standing behind Tony and she could see him nodded his head furiously at her words. Slowly, Kate leaned closer to the screen to get a better look, resting her chin on her boyfriend's shoulder.

'That's not the Doc.' He stated, referring to the very saucy pictures that he was flicking through very quickly considering that Kate was right there.

'You're telling me?' she murmured. 'Who _is_ she?'

'Who are _they…_ It's more than one girl, Kate.' Tony corrected her.

'Say _what_ now?'

'There are like 2 red heads and about 5 blondes. No brunettes… so far.' He smirked and Kate hit him even though she couldn't see him. 'Ow!'

'You deserved it!'

'Why? All I'm doing is using my very good _observing_ skills, which can I just say you, love, are lacking if you couldn't notice that it wasn't just one girl.' He smirked once again.

'Trust you to _observe_ that!' Tony turned and gave her a "what?" look. 'You're looking at half naked girls. I could do a lot worse than hit you, DiNozzo.' She remarked.

'They're not half naked. Just… very… scarcely clad.'

'Ok… I think you should stop now. Gibbs'll be back soon. And I don't wanna explain this.' Kate said, heading back to her desk. Tony nodded but didn't move.

'DiNozzo!' Gibbs' voice came booming suddenly. Tony jumped up and grabbed the iPod as he did so, shoving it in his pocket.

'Yeah Boss!' he yelled back, walking back to his own desk. Kate looked on amusingly.

'Why are you at McGee's desk?'

'Uh…'

'Better yet… where_ is _McGee?'

'Down in the lab with Abby.' Kate answered.

'Go get him then! He's a Special Agent, not a technician!' Gibbs instructed, sitting at his own desk. Both Tony and Kate looked at each other before she shot up and headed downstairs before Tony could move. She gave him a teasing look as she passed his desk.

As soon as Kate got off of the elevator, she knew that something was up. Not only was her instincts telling her so, the lack of music kind of hinted it to her too. Just before she reached the double doors to the main lab, Kate got a glimpse of inside the lab which shocked her. As it settled in, she let out a laugh and back away a bit, deciding to stay out there for a bit.

--

5 minutes after he had sent one of his agents down to get another one, Gibbs was getting annoyed.

'DiNozzo!' he called across the bullpen.

'Yeah, Boss?' Tony replied, his eyes shifting from the computer to him.

'Go and find out what's taking Kate so long.' He demanded him.

'Gladly.' Tony murmured. Each minute that passed, Tony was sure that Gibbs was going to yell at him, or kill him, for taking the iPod. In the elevator, he checked his pocket to make sure it was still there.

Once he had reached the bottom floor where Abby's lab was situated, he exited the metal box prepared for the loud music to assault his ears. However, he was surprised to hear that there was no music on whatsoever, and that Kate was standing right there in front of him.

'Uh… Kate what ar-?' Tony began, but was cut off by her pulling him to her against the wall. 'Ok then…'

Kate slipped her PDA back into her pocket as she kept a hold on Tony.

'Shusssssh.' She said, putting one finger up against her lips.

'Why?' Tony whispered.

'Cos I don't wanna _disturb_ them in there.' Kate stated. Tony gave her a weird look before realising what she meant.

'You mean… but… how?' was all that Tony could think of. Kate giggled at his reaction. Tony frowned. 'Are you laughing at m-?' Tony asked, a bit angry. Kate pulled him closer to her so that she was now trapped between the wall and him.

'Keep quiet. And no, I'm not laughing at you.' When Tony gave her a look, she carried on. 'Ok, so I was. But you should have seen your face…' Kate stared to laugh again.

'Oh you think it's funny, do you?' Tony teased her. Kate saw the twinkle in his eyes that told him that he was joking around.

'How did you figure _that _out, DiNozzo?'

'Ha ha. C'mon, Gibbs'll have my ass if I don't get you and McGee up there, like, 2 minutes ago.' Tony said, pulling away.

'No!' Kate exclaimed. 'I mean if he wanted you up there 2 minutes ago, then another minute won't hurt will it?' she covered up sweetly.

'I dunno, Kate. I might need some convincing.' He said suggestively. Kate rolled her eyes good-naturedly and pulled him closer. Their lips had just met and the two of them were getting into the kiss just as the elevator pinged, causing them to spring apart. After much practice, they were able to it gracefully so that no-one else had to know what they two of them had just been up to.

A slap upside Tony's head registered before he could turn to see who had come.

'Uh… Gibbs!' Kate tried to stop him but he ignored her, per usual. Of course, he was the exception to the 'no-one else' that could tell what she and Tony had been up to.

As the doors to the lab opened, entering Gibbs, followed by Kate and then Tony, the two inside jumped apart from each other as if they could still pretend that they hadn't just been tangled in each other's arms.

McGee jumped further back than he had intended and almost tripped over his own feet. Abby, however, seem to have gotten over the initial shock and stood as if nothing had happened. Both Kate and Tony exchanged looks and started to laugh, trying their best to hide it.

'Is there something in the water today? Or have you all forgotten that this is your _workplace_?' Gibbs boomed, looking around, eyes finally resting on McGee.

'Uh… sorry Boss, it… it… uh… it won't happen again, Boss.' He stuttered out, causing Tony to having to stifle his laughter one again, which made Kate smirk.

'Yeah, well if it does, then the four of you are going to be looking for new jobs.' He said as a final note.

'Was there a reason for why you came down here, Gibbs?' Abby finally spoke up in her usual manner.

'Yeah. To see where my Agents had got to.' He replied. Gibbs turned back to the other three. 'There's a lot of paper work up on your desks.' When none of them made to leave, Gibbs went on. 'Did I stutter?' he yelled. All three of then turned around and walked out calmly out of the lab. Well, Tony and Kate did. They were kind of used to Gibbs yelling at them now. But McGee jumped and walked in a rush to the elevator.

As he had gotten there quickly, he had left and gone up just as the other two reached the elevator doors. Tony sighed and leaned against the wall. Kate watched him. She knew that he didn't like the idea of McGee with Abby. She was like a little sister to him, and as he didn't have any siblings growing up, he was very protective of Abby.

And then there was the fact that Kate never got around to mentioning to him that Abby and McGee were dating. Whenever he asked, she'd change the subject to something that she knew would make him let go of the subject of them.

'Don't be too hard on him, Tony.' She told him as they stepped on the elevator. Tony smirked at her, but she knew it wasn't the normal smirk he'd give.

'Whatever you say, Katie-pie. But I don't think it's me you'll be warning at the end of the day.' He replied cryptically. Kate gave him a look as they stepped off at their floor.

'What?' she asked.

'Nothing.' He answered. As he approached the bullpen, he walked over to the Boss' deck, replacing the iPod under some papers to make it seem like it had been covered, not taken by him.

'He won't fall for it, Tony. He probably knows that you have it already.' Kate said. 'Hell, knowing Gibbs, he might've just set it up _for_ you to take it!' she thought up.

'Yeah right!' Tony scoffed. 'It's not like Gibbs said anything about the iPod, now has he? And why would he _want_ me to see what was on it?'

'Gibbs has an iPod?' McGee asked suddenly.

'No-one's talking to you, Probie.' Tony said harshly as he sat down back at his desk. Usually, Kate would have just ignored it, but this time she shot him a glare which he gladly returned.

'It's not Gibbs', McGee.' She answered him, never letting her eyes leave her partner's.

'Then why was it on his desk?' Tony countered.

'Because he knew that you would find it!' she repeated, exasperated.

'Why would he know that? He tells us to stay _away_ from his desk, remember, Kate?' he snapped, but as always, his voice wasn't near to anger.

'Yet you still got the iPod from there!' Kate pointed out. Tony frowned. It was true and he couldn't think of a good way to argue back. 'Ha! Just admit it; you know that I'm right.' Tony thought about it for a minute before sighing inwardly.

'Only cos it would just clear my innocent mind of the scarring associated with that iPod.' Tony commented. Both Kate and McGee gave him a look. 'What?'

'You're anything _but_ innocent.' She told him.

'Yeah I am. Maybe not in a total angelic way, but I still have an innocent state of mind.'

'Whatever you say…' she murmured as McGee snorted. Tony turned in his chair to look at him.

'You got something to add, McGeek?' he asked rhetorically.

'No, he does not!' Gibbs barked as he entered the bullpen. 'We've got a new case!' he walked over to his desk just to get his gun and equipment, as the other three did the same. 'McGee! Get the car!' he said, throwing him the keys.

Tony and Kate gave each other looks as Gibbs passed them. It was usually Tony's job to get the car.

'Are you two coming?' he snapped once again. They both made their way to the elevator, both knowing that they were in for a hard day with Gibbs in a _bad_ mood.

**What did you think about that?**

**Please R&R! The plot starts next!**

**I'll get it up ASAP!**

**Tiana xXx**


	2. Chapter 2

**Heya!**

**Thanks for the reviews! Here is your reward - a QUICK update!**

**preston-gal : this is JUST for you! hopefully you'll realise what I meant now...**

**I hope you enjoy it… **

**Please R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**

'What do we have here?' Gibbs barked at the nearest looking cop.

'Scene was found by the caretaker at 11am this morning and was called in almost immediately.' He replied urgently.

'Why is it NCIS jurisdiction?' Gibbs snapped.

'Uh… I think you should see the scene first, sir.' Gibbs scowled at the cop, causing him to hurry up in front of him and take them into the apartment on the second floor.

The cop opened the door slowly and carefully. Gently, he stepped into the room trying to avert his eyes to anywhere that was white and pure. But it was hard in the room that he was standing in.

'Oh my…' Kate's voice trailed off as she viewed the room from the doorway. Gibbs was standing a step next to her and she could tell that he was doing the same.

'What the hell?' Tony's voice came from behind her. He stood there too, also glancing around the room. It was a sight that was taking a too long a time to take in.

'You might wanna move before that leg falls on you!' Gibbs' command snapped everyone back to life. The other two Agents turned to look at the cop to see the leg that had been hanging from the ceiling fan was just about to drop onto him. The cop, however, star wide-eyed unable to move until a sudden burst of adrenalin made him ran out of the apartment, causing Kate and Tony to step out of it too.

'Boss! What do you want us to do?' Tony asked as they entered once again.

'Photos and sketches first! Then bag and tag! We've got to get this whole place searched.' Gibbs ordered them. Tony nodded while Kate looked at her boss. She knew that he was thinking the same as she was, but he left the room without another word, so Kate turned to her partner, hopefully backing her up on her theory.

'Yeah, I know…' Tony told her when he caught her eye. She sighed and walked over to him.

'That bastard!' she whispered. Tony placed a hand on her lower back and planted a kiss on her forehead. 'I wonder how many people he's killed this time.'

'Let's find out.' Tony replied, grabbing a camera and handing Kate a sketchbook just as McGee came from the van with all the equipment that Gibbs had ordered him to get.

'Holy…' he, too, trailed off on sight of the body pieces lying around the room, all clothed in a Petty Officer's uniform piece.

'Yeah, we got that too. Start sketching Probie!' Tony instructed him. Just because they were on a crime scene didn't mean that he was going to lay off McGee. Not by a long shot.

--

An hour and a half later and the team were still there. They had just gotten started on the bagging and tagging when Gibbs called for McGee. He dropped what he was doing and ran to the other room at the back of the semi-luxurious apartment, still afraid of him after what had happened that morning.

'Yes Boss?' he asked, out of breath when he finally reached there. Gibbs led him into the room wordlessly, shutting the door behind them so all that was left was a tiny crack to let them know if someone was approaching.

'What I tell and show you now is not to be shared outside of this room except to _me_, do you understand?' Gibbs asked slowly and carefully. McGee's eyes widened and he nodded slowly too. 'That includes Tony, Kate and Abby.' He added. McGee looked at him wearily before nodding once again.

'Yes, Boss.' He answered him. Gibbs nodded tightly before opening one of the wardrobe doors. Slowly, the light from the room lit it. Reaching out a hand, Gibbs moved the two pieces of cloth that hung from the railing to reveal the back of it. Back there was what caused McGee to freeze up for the second time.

'Do you understand now why you cannot tell anyone, McGee?' Gibbs asked. McGee stared at the photographs, some coloured, some black and white, but all of them were mainly of Gibbs or Kate, which naturally included the rest of them, especially Tony, in some of them too.

'Yes, Boss, I do.' He whispered.

'And if I find that you have told any one of them, directly or indirectly, in any way or form, you will be fired so badly, you won't know what you learnt at MIT!' he threatened. Although McGee didn't understand it completely, he assumed it meant that Gibbs would cause him pain, and he didn't like it.

'Yes Boss. I understand.' He answered back.

'Good! Get snapping and then bag and tag them. I'll be back in a minute. If anyone tries to come in here… hide in the wardrobe!' Gibbs smirked as he turned around and walked back to the main living room where the body parts were.

Ducky and Palmer had arrived with their equipment a little while before, and were currently helping Tony and Kate with the collection of the body pieces. At the moment, all that Ducky could do was to roughly guess how many bodies there were and carefully place the estimated 4 bodies gently into the truck.

'It's a shame that he had to go to such drastic measures to claim our attention.' Ducky spoke as they all headed out of the apartment, minus McGee of course.

'Well, Ari doesn't do things lightly.'

'Do we know it's him, Boss?' Tony asked as Kate looked on.

'It looks like it, doesn't it, DiNozzo?' he snapped. Tony was taken aback by the abrupt answer. Gibbs sighed and gave them instructions. 'Go back to NCIS and get going on his alibi, if there is one. Keep me updated with the bodies and any findings.' He said before walking back into the apartment.

'What about McGee?' Tony yelled after him.

'He's staying here!' Gibbs yelled back. Tony chortled, thinking about how badly Gibbs hated McGee right then.

--

'What do you want, DiNozzo?' Kate snapped after an hour at the office. They had begun their search straight away and were so far getting nowhere.

'Well… there are _too_ many answers for that question, Katie.' He replied in his usually tone that made her roll her eyes.

'Then do you mind not staring at me?' she asked in a threatening yet sweet voice.

'Of course I do. Which is why I'm not gonna stop.' He announced. Kate sighed and carried on for a few moments before she got tired of it.

'Ok, what will it take this time to make you get back to work?' she queried. Tony looked at her with an eyebrow raised and walked over to her desk.

'What makes you think that I want something?' he whispered in her ear. Kate smiled ever so slightly, but was able to straighten her face when Tony looked at her.

'Because it's _you_, Tony. Unless you _really_ don't want something, in which case, you can leave. Now.' She stated.

'Ouch, that's harsh, Katie-pie. Anyone would think that you didn't like me.' Kate sent him a glare that made Tony carry on. 'I'll go on one condition-'

'Just one?' Kate teased him. Tony gave her a fake laugh.

'Funny. Just one.' He looked at her and she looked and him, urging him to carry on. 'Talk to me.'

'Uh… I think that I am, Tony.' Kate smiled at him.

'You and I both know that's not what I meant.' He said sternly. Kate sighed.

'There's nothing to talk about. It was just a bit of a shock and now it's just another case.' She declared.

'Kate…'

'_Just another case_. One that we need to get a move on before Gibbs gets back and kills us because we haven't found anything.' Her tone was final and Tony nodded tightly, getting the message, before going back to his own desk.

It was only 15 minutes later that the elevator brought their residential Mistress of Darkness to them.

'Kate! Why didn't you tell me? Are you ok?' she screamed almost as soon as she could see her best friend. Kate shot a look at Tony accusingly. He held both of his hands up in defence.

'It wasn't me!'

'No, it wasn't! But it should've been!' She gave Tony a death glare that would've made Gibbs proud. Tony just smiled back at her. 'Gibbs told me. He's heading back and told me to pull up Ari's past data for immediate comparison.'

'What has Gibbs found?' Kate tried to change the subject, but at no avail.

'You can't change the subject, Kate! This is serious! Like _really_ serious! After what happened last time-' Kate put a hand up to stop her.

'I don't need reminding Abby. I was there, remember!' she informed her, infuriated.

'Sorry, but I'm just worried!' Abby admitted. Kate got up and hugged her.

'It's ok. I'm not going to do anything stupid. I'm not Tony.' She told her.

'Hey!' he yelled. He had been sitting there watching them carefully over the case that he was 'reading'.

'So you're ok?' Abby asked her.

'I'm _fine_! I just wish you would stop asking me that.' She assured her.

'Ok. Good. Now I just havta wait until Gibbs-' Abby was cut off by the _ding_ of the elevator and the yelling of her name.

'Abby! Why aren't you in your lab?' Gibbs' voice boomed across the bullpen.

'Cos I came to see Kate.' She replied in a little voice.

'Well, I've just dropped off some stuff down there, and I need it done _now_!'

'Yes, sir, Boss, sir!' Abby saluted mockingly and walked off. Kate and Tony exchanged looks on the fact that he hadn't correct Abby on calling him "sir".

--

McGee was still in the apartment, taking photos of all the rooms before he had to bag and tag everything, including the pictures. Gibbs had left him there to do this secretly, with only a couple of guards outside. It wasn't supposed to take long, so McGee took pride in the fact that his boss had let him do it himself.

However, about 5 minutes after Gibbs had left, there was some scuffling around outside. It was the guards and the local cops. McGee had packed up his stuff and was about to start to bag the photos from the wardrobe when a guard came in, gun drawn.

'Sir, I think that you should get out. We think we have situation.' He commanded.

'What kind of situation?' McGee asked as he picked up his bag, closing the wardrobe doors carefully so not to draw the guard's attention to it.

'We think that the suspect's near.'

'_Ari_?' McGee asked as he was ushered out of the room and into the front one where the bodies had been. But before he could get a response, there were multiple shots coming through the glass window almost opposite McGee.

As soon as they had passed through, he and the guard ran out of the apartment, but not before another string of bullets entered the apartment. But this time, they didn't seem like it was a random shooting. No. Instead, the whole apartment blew up as it was struck.

**What happens to McGee?**

**And what about Ari and his obsession with Gibbs and Kate?**

**R&R and you'll find out!**

**Tiana xXx**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey!**

**Guess you're wondering what happened to McGee right? Well read on and see…**

**Please R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**

Gibbs' driving had never been worse, but Abby didn't care. As soon as he had received the call that the crime scene was now up in flames, he had called Abby and stormed out, Kate and Tony in his trail.

They now pulled up in front of the cut-off done by the local police force, which was almost at the end of the block.

'Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS!' he showed his ID and the cop let him and Abby through. They had just reached the apartment, which was now just smoking, when Tony and Kate pulled up in a car with Ducky.

'McGee!' Abby yelled when she saw him being attended to. 'Are you ok?'

'I'm fine. Just a couple of bruises.' He assured her, taking off his oxygen mask to talk to her.

'What happened, McGee?' Gibbs asked as the other three approached them.

'There were some shots. Through the window. The second time, it caused the place to blow.' He explained professionally.

'How many shots?'

'Um…' McGee thought for a second. '5 the first time and 4 the second.' He told his boss.

'Ok. That's good observation, McGee.' He complimented offhandedly.

'Boss…' Gibbs turned back to him. 'I didn't get to…' he trailed off but Gibbs got the message.

'Don't worry about it.' He replied before heading to the fire crew to see if they could go back into the former crime scenes, leaving the others in a state of bewilderment.

'So, Probie, seems like you're playing hero, even though there wasn't anyone to save.' Tony chuckled.

'I swear, if you quote a film or say this reminds you of something, I'm going to _shoot_ you, DiNozzo!' Kate told him from next to him. Tony sighed.

'Fine. But I had a _really_ good one!' Kate and Abby both rolled their eyes at his pouting face.

'Glad you're ok, Tim.' Kate said.

'DiNozzo! Kate! Get over here!' Gibbs yelled for them from near the stairs to the scene of the multiple crimes.

Once they left, it was just Abby and McGee as Ducky had headed over to the other ambulance to see someone else who had been injured, but not so badly either.

Suddenly, Abby grabbed McGee into a hug. Startled at first, McGee returned the hug.

'I'm _so_ glad you're ok! You don't know what I thought when Gibbs aid that there had been an accident. At first I thought it might have been with the Poison Ivy _again_, but he was serious!' she babbled.

'I'm ok. I'm actually better than I would be if it _was_ Poison Ivy.' He claimed. Abby laughed.

'That's cool, McGee!' she placed a hand on his arm and they shared relived smile, neither of them taking it further as they weren't really a fan of PDA right then after what had happened just that morning.

Inside the apartment, Gibbs went straight to the back room, instructing Tony and Kate to look for the bullets and explosives to try to figure where they had came from. At the now burnt wardrobe, Gibbs saw that all of the photos where now ash. There wasn't anything left. Finding this odd, he assumed that this was another game of Ari's. He must have known that Gibbs would find them and had a back up plan for to get rid of the evidence, after taunting him first.

Carefully, Gibbs peered at the back of what was left of the wardrobe and tried to see behind it. When he couldn't see anything, he figured that the only way that he would be able to do so would be to move it.

'Hey! Some help here!' he yelled to the other two. A moment later, they both came to the room that he was in.

'What's up, Boss?' Tony asked him. Gibb nodded at the wardrobe.

'Help me move this.' He stated, moving to the side of it while Tony went to the other end and helped him. Once they had moved it a couple of feet, they stood back and looked at the newly exposed area.

'This is where the fire began.' Gibbs said. Kate looked at the area and got the same conclusion.

'How did you know that?' Tony asked, confused, but Gibbs just ignored him, causing him to look at Kate, who gave him a confused look back.

The three of them continued to process the scene until they finally found the bullet in the gas tank hidden in a hollow wall. Another hour later, and they were able to find its projectile path. It went from the front room, through the window and over to the other side of the street, and just into the park that was there.

'You'd think that someone would see a guy with a sniper rifle in a park, right?' Kate snorted.

'Unless he was hiding.' Tony said. Gibbs looked over through the broken window once again and then turned to his agents.

'Go take a walk, guys.' He said. Tony and Kate gave each other looks before looking out of the window and then back to their boss. 'And keep it causal. See if you can find anything suspicious or any evidence of Ari being there.' He directed them. They both nodded and headed out of the apartment.

They reached where McGee was still with Abby at the side of road to let them know where they were going before heading over to dump their NCIS clothing in the car that they had came in.

Tony had his arm slung over Kate's shoulders while she was pulled close to him, her hand grasping the one around her shoulders. They causally walked around the park, just talking and laughing frequently about some random stuff. To anyone else, they would look like a couple in love. In fact they were, but they also had an ulterior motive too.

'Tony, over there.' Kate said suddenly, causing Tony to stop midway through his theory on how Abby would kill McGee for cheating on her. Kate now guided them over to a little shed that was in a little deserted area of the park.

'It's not far from the apartment. But I can't see a clear view, can you?' he asked looking over his shoulder to the crime scene repeatedly to make sure.

'Let's go in and see.' She insisted. Tony nodded and let her guide the two of them into the shed without anyone else seeing them.

The shed was quite small. Smaller than a garden shed, Tony thought. Inside, it was dusty and empty. There was no lock on the door, but it did seem like it had been used recently. Quite recently.

'Call Gibbs. I have perfect view from here.' Kate announced, crouching down near the window. The two of them were trying not to touch anything, so it was hard for her to see if it _really_ was possible to shoot from that place with the window open, but it seemed very probable to her.

Tony came up behind her and looked out of the window. From his standing position, there were trees in the way. When he too squatted down, he could see the apartment clearly. Sighing, he took his cell out.

'Yeah, Boss. We've found a possible position.' Tony hung up soon after that.

'What did he say?' Kate queried, standing up and stretching.

'He hung up.'

'So he's coming?'

'Probably.'

--

Once the processing of the shed was done, it was almost 4pm. Abby had gone back to headquarters with McGee and Ducky in the car, leaving the main equipment van there for Gibbs, Tony and Kate.

It was when they were all gathering things up that Gibbs had started to walk over to main crime scene once again that his phone started to ring. Pulling it out, he saw that the caller ID displayed "restricted" so Gibbs had no choice but to accept it.

'Hello?' he answered.

'Hello. It's been a long time, Special Agent Gibbs.' Ari's voice came over the cell. Only hours beforehand, he had been told about how someone had called the local cops, claiming that they had seen a terrorist near the apartment area, hence why the 'situation' that McGee had been in had aroused.

'Not long enough, Ari.' Gibbs replied coldly. He heard the other guy sigh.

'Did you like my present, Agent Gibbs? It was just for you.' He said almost proudly.

'Surely was different.' There was a pause on the other end, and Gibbs could hear the gearing up of a motorbike.

'I hope I didn't scare any of your Agents.' Ari apologised, although Gibbs was sure it was fake.

'I have a strong team.' Gibbs mentioned.

'Poor Caitlin.' Gibbs heard him sigh once more. He was finding it hard to keep himself from bursting out in anger at the guy's accented voice which had haunted him for a while now. It was a voice that always haunted him. 'She seems all shook up, although she is trying her best to disguise it, I know.'

Gibbs frantically looked around to see Kate and Tony in the park still, slowly heading over, laughing and bickering about something before trying to see if he could spot any motorbikes.

'You won't be able to find me, Gibbs.' Ari told him.

'Then why get me to come after you?' Gibbs asked, frustrated.

'Cos it's time for payback.' And with that, Ari hung up in a very Gibbs-like style.

Gibbs wasn't happy. It was something that he hated; being the person a step behind. Unfortunately for him, he never spotted any motorbikes when he hung up. Instead, all he saw was the abandoned street that he was on, and the park opposite him.

'Who was that, Boss?' Tony asked as he and Kate came back to the van.

'Ari.' He spat the name out in disgust. Walking off and getting into the drivers seat, Tony and Kate gave each other a worried look. Just as Kate was going to say something, Gibbs yelled at them to get into the vehicle or he was going to drive off without them.

'Coming!' they yelled back simultaneously.

**Sorry for the short chappies- it's the only way that I can upload quickly!**

**I dunno what time it is right now… I don't have my glasses on and I'm TOO sleepy! So Ima just post this and I hope you enjoy it!**

**Please R&R! There'll be MORE TATE next chapter!**

**Tiana xXx**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey!**

**Thanks for the great reviews people! I'm loving them. For that reason – I made this chapter longer and hopefully more better…**

**PLEASE R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**

'Hurry it up, Abs!' Gibbs snapped as soon as he entered the lab. Once he had gotten back to NCIS, he had dropped down to see her, telling her about the phone call and got her to trace it as soon as she could.

Abby knew that the possibilities of getting trace was slim to none, seeing as the call wasn't in progress anymore, and the number was "restricted", but she daren't tell her boss that.

'I can't hurry it up, Gibbs! I'm just one person!' she complained.

'Well, you're not getting McGee! So just do it twice as fast!' Gibbs was being extra grouchy to her, and she didn't like it.

'I don't _want_ McGee, Gibbs! I'm never gonna get the trace because it's too far gone. The only way that I could have gotten one would have been during the phone call, or if you had a number. The only thing I can do right now is…' Abby trailed off, thinking of _what_ she could do right then. 'I can't do anything, Gibbs.' She sighed, turning around to face him.

Gibbs stared at her for a moment before realising what he had just done. Sighing, he nodded tightly.

'Have you gotten the results for the bullets?' he asked.

'Not yet. I had started with that but then you made me do this so…' Abby left the rest of the sentence fade.

'Ok, then do that. You've got an hour.' He stated.

'Got it, Boss-man!' she replied in her normal chirpy one. Gibbs smirked as he left the lab and headed back upstairs.

Ducky had recommended that McGee should go home when Gibbs had arrived at NCIS, so he reluctantly agreed. He didn't hesitate because of being one-man down, but rather because of the consequences of the blast that day, and the chances of Ari having his men after McGee. But he knew that McGee knew about the photos, so he had quietly slipped to him to be careful.

Now, however, there remained Tony and Kate in the bullpen, and neither of them knew about the photos. He sighed as he sat down at his desk.

'Kate, go see if Ducky has any information for us.' He ordered her. She gave him a confused look before getting up and heading towards the elevator. Gibbs was always the one to go down to autopsy.

Getting up once again, he told Tony to follow him as he walked up the stairs to MTAC. Tony did to relieve the bewilderment growing in him.

'What's going on?' he asked once they got into the room. Gibbs stayed silent as he just watched what was going on with the search for Ari.

'I'm putting you on protection detail.' Gibbs announced suddenly. Tony's eyebrows scrunched up, wondering if he had missed something.

'For whom, Gibbs?' he asked. Gibbs gave him a glare.

'Who do you think, DiNozzo? Your partner!' he exclaimed, causing Tony to make an "oh!" face, although it was replaced rather quickly with a confused one.

'Why, Boss?'

'In case you haven't noticed, Tony, we have a _very_ dangerous terrorist on our heels who seems to have a very unhealthy obsession for Kate.' He remarked. Tony nodded and decided to keep his own remarks to himself.

'No offence, Boss, but Kate won't really take this lightly.' He mentioned. Gibbs turned to look at him once more.

'Well then, I guess you're gonna havta not tell her then. Cos, DiNozzo, if you fail this, it'll be the last thing that you'll ever do!' Gibbs warned him. Tony smiled and started to laugh before turning it into a fake cough when he saw the seriousness on his face.

'Got it, Boss!' he announced before Gibbs told him to go back to work. He skipped up the stairs to get out of their before bouncing down the stairs to get to the bullpen.

Kate had just gotten off of the elevator and was making her way to the bullpen when she saw her partner jumping down the stairs.

'Hey, beautiful!' Tony greeted her as he jumped down onto the floor and turning towards her.

'Ok, what's gotten into you?' she laughed as he pecked her cheek.

'What? Can't I just be happy? Especially when I see you?' he asked innocently, sitting on the edge of her desk as she walked past him before realising that it was just them two in the bullpen.

'Where's Gibbs?' she asked him.

'MTAC.' He answered.

'Were you just there?'

'Yup!' he said cheerfully and Kate looked at him weirdly.

'Why were you up there?' Tony knew that that was coming but he still didn't have a good answer.

'I just followed Gibbs.' He shrugged, knowing that his excuse was lame. Before Kate got to use her profiling skills on him, he quickly changed the subject. 'What did you get from Ducky?'

'Nothing much. He's sent some sample down to Abby to test for DNA, other than that, just the cause of deaths, which were all due to loss of blood.' she informed him, sitting at her desk, which made Tony turn around on her desk so he could face her.

'Now, why's that not a surprise?' he replied sarcastically.

'What's that, DiNozzo?' Gibbs asked as he came down. Tony immediately stood up and walked over to Gibbs' desk, where he headed straight to.

'The CODs of the bodies were all due to loss of blood, Boss.' He told him.

'Anything else?' he probed. Tony went to say something, but Kate cut in before.

'The amputations where done by a professional, and there was minimum blood loss, but he had also stabbed the heart to make it bleed out, therefore, causing death.' She told him. Tony gave her a dirty look while she just smirked back.

'You didn't tell me that!' he hissed to her when Gibbs got up to look at the widescreen plasma where a couple of photos of he body pieces were shown.

'You didn't ask!' she hissed back, causing him to stick his tongue out. Kate was going to roll her eyes, but ended up laughing when Gibbs slapped Tony upside the head, causing him to bite his tongue. 'You _so_ deservedthat!'

'Whatever!' he mumbled, glad that his tongue didn't hurt too badly, nor was it interfering with his speech.

Gibbs watched on as his two Agents bickered, partially happy with the fact that Ari was back didn't affect them much, although he knew that on a deeper level, it really did.

Glancing at the time in the corner of his computer screen, he read that it was just past 7pm. Shuffling the papers around on his desk; he smirked when the iPod that rested there fell out suddenly. He knew that Tony had gotten to it; there were fresh fingerprint smudges on the back of it, where it was easy to see because of the mirror like cover. He picked it up and got up form his desk.

'Ok, the two of you can go. There's nothing else left for today.' He stated. As he passed Tony's desk, he placed the iPod on it. 'Drop that off at reception when you leave.' He ordered.

Tony stared after Gibbs as he left in the elevator as Kate burst out laughing.

'I to-' Kate started but Tony interrupted.

'_Don't_ say it! We still don't know!' he mentioned. Kate snorted.

'He just told you to drop it off at reception. If it was his, then why would he tell you to do that?' she argued.

'To throw off suspicion.' He countered.

'Tony! Just give it up!' Kate said as she got up and started to get ready to go home. Tony did the same and they continued to bicker all the way down to reception.

'All I'm saying is that we shouldn't jump to conclusions! Stick with the facts, Katie!' he told her as they approached reception.

'Yeah like the fact that Gibbs just told you to hand it in at reception, or the fact that what was on the iPod is something that Gibbs would _never _have?' she mocked. Tony fake laughed before they walked up to reception.

'Oh, is that the iPod that Special Agent Gibbs found this morning?' the young blonde lady at reception asked Tony. Kate smiled at Tony in an "I told you" manner as Tony frowned.

'I dunno. He just told me to drop it down here.' He said, indignantly. The receptionist smiled at him, and Tony smiled back as Kate rolled her eyes. Even in the 8 months together, he hadn't changed his flirtatious manner. She didn't really mind; it was a part of him that she loved. And he knew how far to take it before she got pissed off. He had learnt _that_ from experience.

'Ok. Well, I'll keep it here then.' She chirped. Tony nodded and said thanks before pulling on his sunglasses and walking out of the building behind Kate.

'Hey! Where do you think you're going?' he asked her, grabbing her by the hips.

'Um… home maybe?' Kate informed him, cocking he head to the side while turning to face him. Tony gave her his famous 'DiNozzo' smile which made Kate not only smile back, but also wonder what he was thinking.

'Nah, you're coming with me!' he announced to her, slightly pulling her in the direction to his car. Kate raised an eyebrow at him. 'C'mon! You know that Gibbs'll keep us from God knows how long starting from tomorrow… and yesterday I didn't get to see you…' he smiled at her once again as he opened the door to his car. She gave him a look before getting in.

'This is only cos you're gonna buy me dinner.' She assured him. Tony chuckled.

'You keep telling yourself that.' He laughed. Kate hit him on the arm, struggling to keep her smile at bay. 'Hey! I'm driving here!'

'What's your point?' Kate retorted. Tony opened his mouth to say something, but then decided against it. Kate noticed his movement and looked at him, waiting for him to repeat it, but he didn't. 'What were you going to say?'

'Looks like it's gonna rain.' Tony told her.

'That's not what you were going to say.'

'Yeah it was.' He said.

'No it wasn't! If it was, then you wouldn't have said it.' She argued back, knowing that they were going to get into an argument.

'Well, maybe I knew that you were going to pester me about it so I just told you!' He countered.

'Nah, you wouldn't.'

'But I did.' He smiled.

'Nuh- uh!'

'Yeah!'

'No it was not!' Kate laughed. She didn't know why she was laughing, but she was just in the mood to.

'Yeah it was. And even if it wasn't, I can't remember what else it would've been.' He stated.

'So you're saying that it was something else, right?' Kate probed.

'Nooo…' Tony dragged out 'I'm just saying that I dunno what I was going to say, so we should just leave cos we are now home, and it is raining!' he smiled at he end of it for like the millionth time that day and Kate just smirked at him.

'Aw. Is lil Anthony scared of the rain?' she cooed.

'Ha! You wish!' he threw back as he got out of the car, followed by Kate on the other side. It wasn't raining too much, but it was a steady drizzle that would soak them if they stayed out for a little while.

Once again that evening, Tony grabbed Kate by her waist as she reached his side of the car. He gently spun her around and brought her closer to him.

'Tony!'

'What?' he asked innocently, smiling. He still had his arms around her waist holding her close as he swayed them both in the rain.

'What are you doing?' she giggled as he rested his forehead against hers. The rain was still beating down on them, but neither one of them noticed. It was still the summer, so it was refreshing.

'Dancing.' He answered. 'In the rain. With you.' Tony added as Kate sighed and laughed once again.

'Can I ask why?' she now whispered due to their close proximity.

'Because you're mio amore. And I love you.' He whispered back. Kate smiled and gave him a sweet, long-lasting kiss.

'I love you too.' Just as she said it, the rain started to pour even harder and Kate looked upwards to see the heavy drops of rain come down onto her face.

'I think we should go in before we get ill.'

'We wouldn't want that, now would we?' Kate teased as Tony dragged her by the hand up to his apartment. She finally realised that she was glad that Tony lived in a private area where the apartment block and car park was fenced off so that no-one else could've seen them dancing in the rain.

Once they were in his place, the coldness of their wet clothes sunk in. Goosebumps rose on Kate's skin as the wind caused by the door closing reached her. She shivered and Tony pulled her close to him.

'I think we should get changed.' He suggested.

'I have a better idea…' she trailed off biting her lower lip as Tony laughed.

'I bet you do.' He replied, capturing her lips in a kiss while she dragged him into his bedroom.

**So that was chock-full of TATE right?**

**Please R&R and I'll update soon!**

**Tiana xXx**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey!**

**A new chapter for you guys!**

**I hope you like it!**

**R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**

'You know, Tony, we haven't ate yet.' Kate informed him as they laid in his bed. Their clothes were discarded on the floor while she snuggled up to him with just his shirt now on.

'I didn't notice.' He murmured back. Kate laughed at the irony. 'What's so funny?'

'It's just that it's usually you that would've mentioned the food part, not me.' She explained.

'Yeah, and it's usually me that would've dragged you to bed, not the other way around.' He added. Kate groaned good-naturedly.

'God! You're rubbing off on me!'

'What you complaining about? It's a _good_ thing!' he defended himself. Kate pushed herself up to look at him, smirking.

'You're bad enough on your own. We need one sane person in our team.' She told him. Tony looked at her with annoyance, although it was fake.

'Are you trying to insinuate that I'm not _sane_?' he asked her.

'Insinuate? That's a big word for you, Tony…' she teased him. Quicker than a flash, Kate yelped out loud when Tony flipped her so that he was now looking down on her.

'What was that you were saying?' he asked while leaning down dangerously close to her. Kate could see the glimmer of mischief in his eyes and she knew that she would be in for it if she didn't get herself out of the situation.

'That maybe we should get some food?' she replied innocently. Tony chuckled deeply and leaned down fully to kiss her. Before they would get carried away, he pulled away.

'Maybe we _should_ eat first.' He suggested.

'I _could_ do with the energy…' Kate sighed as she pulled him down for another kiss. Just as she did, though, one of the cell phones started to ring. 'It's not mine.'

'Uh… it must be mine.' He moaned, not bothering to move.

'Well, it better be!' she joked pushing him off of her. 'Go answer it!'

'Where is it?' he asked her, sitting back on the bed with his legs under him, peering onto the floor.

'There somewhere.' She mentioned causally. 'I'm gonna take a shower before dinner, ok?'

'Mmh-hmm.' Tony answered back, not really paying attention. He finally found his cell, and flipped it open without even looking at the caller ID. 'DiNozzo.'

'It's me.' the rough voice came from the other end of the line.

'Hey Boss. What's up?' he asked.

'Just making sure that you don't forget your job.' Gibbs informed him.

'Nice to know that you trust me, Boss. I mean after 5 years, you _would_ think that you would…' Tony replied sarcastically.

'Well, are you doing your job?' Tony could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

'Yes, Boss, I am. Kate's right here with me. Kind of.'

''Kind of?' what do you mean, 'kind of'?' Gibbs commanded.

''Kind of', as in I can't see her at the moment as she is in the other room and I'm not Superman.' Tony explained to his boss. He wouldn't say it, but he was pissed off with the fact that Gibbs would think that he would leave Kate alone to be in danger that night.

'Well, then maybe you should go and join her in the other room!' Gibbs barked. Tony smirked at Gibbs' unintentional proposition.

'Boss, you want me to go and get in the shower with Kate?' he said playfully. Gibbs could hear the smile in his voice and he hung up, knowing that Tony had it under control.

As soon as the line went dead, Tony shut the cell with a smile on his face. He thought about Gibbs' suggestion, but then he remembered what Kate had said before. He quickly ordered some Chinese before entering the en suite bathroom.

Slipping off his boxers, he gently slid the door to the shower open and stepped in, making Kate jump as he placed his fingertips on her back.

'Don't do that!' she snapped, smiling and turning to face him. 'Who called?'

'Uh… Abby! She just wanted to see where I was.' He rolled his eyes and Kate knew he was lying.

'She was checking that you were with me, wasn't she?'

'Uh…' Tony didn't know what to say. But he was saved by Kate herself.

'That girl needs to learn that I can take care of myself.' She shook her head before pulling Tony to her. 'Did ya order dinner?'

'Yup!' he grinned as he cornered her against the tiles of the shower wall.

'Good…' she trailed off as he started to kiss her.

--

Half an hour later, both Kate and Tony were sitting in the front room in their nightclothes, the TV only on for distraction, eating their dinner. Well, Kate was eating while Tony was trying to prove to her that he could teach himself to eat with chopsticks.

'Just let me help you, Tony.' She told him while picking up some more noodles to eat in an almost mocking way for Tony.

'I don't need any help…' he replied. Kate watched him try to use the instruments. She found herself watching his face. It was set in sheer determinism, with his tongue poking out slightly on the side as he concentrated. To her, he looked like a 5 year old. She laughed out loud at the stray thought.

'Please let me help you?' Kate now asked. Tony looked up at her from his end of the coffee table that they were using while they say on the floor. 'Please?' she fluttered her eyes and gave him the look that he couldn't say "no" to.

'Fine! But only because I'm hungry!' he assured her, huffing. Kate leaned over and grabbed his chopsticks before winding his fingers around them. It took time as Tony was unwilling to cooperate.

'Will you just-' she murmured in frustration.

'It's not me! It's my fingers aren't doing what you want them to do!' he told her. Kate quirked an eyebrow at him.

'Yeah, that makes _so_ much sense, DiNozzo.' She said dryly. Finally, she got his fingers to stay still around the wooden sticks and she leaned back.

'Ok… now, how do you use them?' Tony asked her. Kate rolled her eyes.

'Use the one you're holding like a pencil still but move the other one on top to grab the food.' She instructed. This now caused another dilemma. Tony couldn't get his fingers to move the sticks accurately, causing the food to just slide.

'This… is… just… so… _stupid!_' he grumbled.

'Just cos you can't use them…' Kate replied, eating some more of her own food. Tony threw his chopsticks down and went to the kitchen to get a fork.

'You know, there is actually _no point_ of using nor having chopsticks. We are _Americans_ and therefore, we should use _American_ stuff, like forks!' he held up a fork to show her.

'The fork is European and you're Italian.' Kate informed him matter-of-factly. Tony gave her a look while his hand held his poised fork in front of his mouth. 'What?'

'Why the hell would you know that for?' he asked incredulously.

'Everyone knows that you're Italian, Tony.' Kate replied, acting dumb.

'Technically, I'm American-Italian, seeing as I _was_ born here. But I was talking about the fork thing.' He mentioned.

'It's general knowledge. Something that you would have if you spent time _reading_ instead of watching DVDs all the time.' She defended herself. Tony glared at her before smirking.

'I don't watch DVDs _all_ the time, Katie. You know that.' He said in a highly suggestive tone.

'Yeah, I do. Unfortunately.' She murmured the last bit. When Tony threw her a "what did you just say?" look, she just smiled at him and took a sip of her wine. He knew something was up when she smiled like that, but he just left it alone right then.

After they had had finished eaten and cleaned up, which didn't take long seeing as they had had take-out, the two of them sat on the couch watching anything that was on TV.

'Wait! Go back one.' Kate told Tony as he flicked through the channels quickly. Tony obeyed her and went back one to reveal a channel with "Addams Family" playing. 'Wow! I haven't seen this movie for _years_ now.' She admitted.

'I've got it somewhere here…' Tony told her. Kate just shrugged.

'Nah, it's a good movie, but it's only when it's on the TV that I can watch it.' She said.

'Yeah, it's aright.' He said half-heartedly.

'Why do you have it if you don't really like it?' she asked him, confused by his reaction. Then Tony smiled his smile.

'Cos Christina Ricci is _hot_!' he told her. Kate looked at him disbelievingly.

'She's like _11_ in this movie, Tony!'

'So?'

'What do you mean _'so'_? You know that that practically makes you a pervert, right?' she informed him.

'Nooooo…. it does not. I'm just saying that she is good looking. Even as a kid, _but_ better as an adult.' He said.

'You keep telling yourself that, and only yourself. I dunno what other people would make of it.' Kate smiled at him, patting his chest as she leaned into him. He laughed at her antics before relaxing to watch the movie.

An hour later, the movie was almost over, and Tony was lying on the couch with Kate on top of him. He felt her stifle a yawn as she continued to watch the movie. He, however, watched her.

'Maybe we should go to bed.' He suggested to her. Kate shook her head.

'Nah, I wanna stay here tonight. It'll be fun.' She replied. Tony snorted.

'You'll fall asleep in about half an hour, honey.'

'I will not.' She told him.

'You know you will.'

'Will _not_!' she snapped.

'You're already half asleep!'

'Am not! Just bored of the film now.' She said, reaching out for the TV remote to change the channel.

'Fine. But if you fall asleep, I'm gonna leave you here.' He informed her. Kate giggled at his words.

'You know you won't.' she said matter-of-factly.

'Yeah, I will. There is _no_ way I'm gonna carry you all the way to the bedroom.' Tony told his girlfriend, resting his chin on her head as he tightened his grip on her.

'Are you tryna say that I'm heavy?' her tone was irritated and Tony couldn't tell if she was kidding or not.

'No. What I was tryna say was that…' Tony tried to think about what he was trying to say.

'Yes?' Kate asked him, prompting him to go on. Tony struggled to think of something to say.

'Uh… I dunno what I meant?' he tried to convince her with. Kate huffed and just continued to change the channel in hope of finding something else to watch. 'You're mad at me.' Tony said after about 5 minutes when Kate had gone through every channel and was back to the one she had started at, with no intention of stopping.

'I'm not mad at you. I'm just mad at the TV. You have too many channels, yet there's nothing on!'

'That's cos you aren't reading what the time is.; he pointed out to her.

'What?' she asked, confused, not stopping her channel surfing.

'It's almost 11 pm. That means that all the programmes are just about to start, genius.' He answered her.

'Shut up! Just cos I spend more time sleeping at 11pm than watching TV.' She exclaimed.

'I don't watch TV at night, Katie. It's what happened all the time. Do you _ever_ watch TV?' Tony asked, causing Kate to kick him as her hands were occupied. 'Ok, ok I get it…'

'Hmm…' she mumbled. 'Oh, cool! 'Scream' is on!' she noticed as she passed HBO once again.

'You ever seen 'Scream' before, honey?' he asked her as she dropped the remote carefully on the floor and snuggled deeper into Tony.

'Of course.'

Y yourself?'

'Uh… with Abby.'

'I bet she enjoyed it.' Tony murmured.

'You would think so, wouldn't you?' Kate smirked, remembering that particular night, where Abby had gotten up 20 minutes into the movie to switch the light on. Kate knew that she was scared. Hell, she was too. But not enough to switch the light on. Wasn't it Abby that had told her that a little pain was a good thing?

_I'm sure being scared out of your wits could be classified as pain_ Kate thought as the film now began.

When the screen went dark once again, and the eerie music came on, Kate was finally aware of the dark surroundings that she was in. Mixed with the eerie music emitted from that TV, she somehow thought about Ari and was suddenly very self-conscious. Of course, she had Tony right there, holding her, but she was still scared. Safe, but scared.

_No, not scared. Just worried_ she reassured herself.

'You not scared, are ya, Katie-pie?' Tony whispered to her as she squirmed about, trying to get comfortable after her thoughts.

'You wish, DiNozzo!' he shot back, not daring to tell him what had been running through her mind.

'Don't worry, anyways. I'll keep you safe.' He said cheekily. Kate laughed at him, not bothering to argue with him. It was true, and she knew it was. He would keep her safe.

--

At almost 4am, Tony was once again woken up by the ringing of the phone, which gradually got louder as it continued to ring.

It took a minute to take in his surrounding, but as he did, he realised that the phone was still ringing. He reached out behind him, onto the side table, where three phones laid. He grabbed them all before dumping them onto the couch next to him and answering the one that buzzed.

'Yeah?' he answered roughly, still sleepy.

'Get up! Get yourself and Kate here, now!' Gibbs' voice came across. Tony wondered how he could be so forceful and alive so early.

'Boss! It's only 4 in the morning.' Tony complained with his voice low as possible to allow Kate to keep on sleeping. The tactic didn't work.

'I don't care! Now get your ass moving and get here!' he snapped.

'But-' Tony began, but was cut off by Gibbs.

'I didn't know that my orders had started to become options, DiNozzo!'

'I was just gonna ask why.' Tony mumbled. He heard Gibbs sigh before there was a long pause.

'We've had a sighting. It was close by so I want everyone here. Especially the two of you, Tony.' Gibbs told him. Tony slowly nodded and then closed his eyes.

'We'll be right in, Boss.' Gibbs hung up on him promptly.

'Gibbs?' Kate asked him sleepily. Tony gave the top of her head a kiss.

'Who else?' he whispered, not letting her go.

'Should we get up?'

'In a minute. Lemme just wake up first.' He joked. In reality, he was just thinking about what Gibbs had said.

_If they have found _him _then what's the worst that can happen this time round? _He thought.

'Alright, I'm getting up now. When do we havta be there for?' Kate announced, slowly sitting up before standing up.

'As soon as we can.' Tony replied. He still laid there.

'Ok. I gonna go get changed and see if I can do anything about waking up.' She laughed. Tony put on a smile for her as she leaned down to give him a kiss.

'You want some breakfast?' he yelled after her in the dark. The only light was coming from the almost silent TV screen.

'Just some coffee for now.' She yelled back and Tony finally got up, heading towards the kitchen to make as much coffee as possible.

_Today's gonna be a _long_ day_. He thought to himself, grumpily.

**So that was the TATE fluff chapter for you. I hope you liked it. I personally love any chapter that has TATE to the max in it.**

**Anyways – next chapter… Ari's back. And you all know what that means, right?**

**Please R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey!**

**So with the many reviews I got – I decided to update quickly!**

**Please do the same this time! I like to hear what you guys think!**

**Btw- I have NEVER seen 'Twilight'. Yup that's right- to me, Kate has never died! But I do know what happens roughly (my sis told me) so this is MY twist on the season 2 finale. In a typical TATE obsessed fan way!**

**Tiana xXx**

The drive to NCIS took twice as quick as normal, considering that there was no-one on the roads. Getting into headquarters, however, took twice as long.

'What's up with all the security?' Kate asked as Tony stopped inside the parking lot, at last. He hadn't told her why Gibbs had called them in so early. But she must've figured it out.

'After what happened last time, Gibbs won't be taking any chances, Kate.' Tony answered. Kate nodded and left the subject alone as they entered the building, and were asked for ID for almost the hundredth time that morning.

'Where have you two been? I called you 40 minutes ago!' Gibbs snapped as they entered the secluded bullpen.

_I guess it's just us that are under threat_ Kate thought.

'Sorry boss. But there are a _hell_ lot of people out there checking our IDs every two seconds.' Tony explained as they sat at their desks.

'Dammit! I don't know now that is helping!' Gibbs swore. Kate and Tony exchanged looks.

'We thought that it was you that ordered the security.' Kate told him. Tony didn't say anything to back her, nor to go against her. He just sat there, watching them.

'Why would I do that for?' Gibbs asked, sounding almost sarcastic. But Kate decided to answer anyway.

'To stop Ari from getting in?' she tried. Gibbs gave her a look as McGee came in with Abby in tow.

'No. The only thing that this does is alert Ari that we are onto him. Making it harder for us to catch him!'

'He's leaving us clues and a trail, Boss. He wants us to find him. I'm sure this isn't going to stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He'll just find another way around it.; Tony finally said. Gibbs gave him another one of his looks that shut him up.

'So why are we here at almost 5 in the morning, Gibbs?' Kate asked. McGee and Abby stood by his desk, not getting involved. Gibbs looked at Tony, who held his hands up in defence.

'She didn't ask so I didn't tell.' he defended himself at Gibbs' pointed glare.

'There's been a sighting on Ari.' He finally told them. From the look on Abby and McGee's faces, it seemed as if they had just followed Gibbs' orders to be there and not question him, unlike Tony.

'Where?' Kate asked.

'Near Norfolk.'

'Wow, he playing this easy.' Tony commented.

'Yeah, well, he didn't stick around for long Just to drop off a box with a finger in it. Ducky's working on it at the moment. Abby, I want you to get a sample of the DNA to speed up the process. If the finger isn't one of the bodies we found yesterday…' Gibbs trailed off, but everyone knew what he meant.

Abby headed off downstairs straight away before Gibbs gave the others orders.

'McGee, find the profiles of the bodies we found yesterday. Abby should've sent you the results. See if there are any matches, links or anything. Kate, help him. DiNozzo, you're with me.' As soon as he said the last word, both Tony and Kate started to argue with him. 'Hey! Kate you're staying here and Tony, you aren't. Now, _move it_!' he yelled as Tony grabbed his gun and shared a look with Kate. 'Why do people feel like they can argue with me?' he murmured to himself as he got into the elevator, Tony jumping in as it began to close.

'Boss, you put me on protection detail. I don't think that this qualifies as being on protection detail.' Tony stated

'That's because it doesn't.' he replied roughly.

'Then why am I here and not up there?' he asked as they left the building.

'Because I need to interview the Petty Officers who saw Ari and I couldn't send Kate there, and I wasn't going to go with McGee.' Gibbs explained. Tony nodded. He understood. Kind of. But he would rather be with Kate.

--

At 6.30am, Tony and Gibbs arrived back at HQ. They had interviewed the two Pos about the sighting, but both had said the same thing.

'Neither saw his face. They were alerted previously to keep an eye out for him, but they heard his bike and chose _not_ to approach for their own safety.' Tony explained to Kate and McGee as they sat in the bullpen.

'Did you two find anything?' Gibbs asked them. Kate got up and leaned against McGee's desk to use the plasma and show them what they had gathered.

'Although they were dressed in uniform, Lieutenant Smith had retired 3 years ago, and PO Kent was on sick leave for 5 month for post cancer treatment. So far,' Kate pulled up another picture, 'the only link that we can find id this guy. Petty Officer Davidson. He has worked with both Smith and Kent during the last 5 years.'

'What about the other two bodies?' Tony asked, remembering what Ducky had said.

'Well, get this. They were…' Kate pulled up another picture of the two 'bodies', 'mannequins.'

'Seriously?' Tony smirked

'The blood wasn't even blood.' McGee told him. 'It was the stuff they sell at Halloween.'

Gibbs sat, taking in the information. Ari didn't do thing for reason. He did it for attention.

'Any link to Ari?' he asked.

'None what so ever, Boss. I even ran the doctors who treated Kent to see if there was a link, but I couldn't find one.' McGee replied.

'Well, try harder! If there is no link, then we might not know who else he is going to kill if we don't catch him in time.' Gibbs ordered as he went up to MTAC.

All 3 agents watched him go n disbelieve.

'That's not good.' Tony spoke finally, breaking the silence. 'That's _really_ not good!' the other two didn't say anything but they agreed with him. They had never heard Gibbs sounding so… pessimistic before.

An hour later, Gibbs, followed by Tony and Kate, entered Abby's lab.

'What have you got, Abby?' Gibbs asked her.

'No Caf-Pow!?' she asked before turning to see Gibbs' glare. 'Never mind. The DNA from the finger got a hit. It belongs to a PO Alex Davidson.'

As soon as she said it, the others in the room all looked at each other, and Gibbs turned back to Abby.

'With a loss of a finger, he could still be alive. I want you to try to get a location for where he is.' Gibbs turned to Kate and Tony. 'Get his file and find his cell phone number. Of he has it with him, we can trace it.' Tony and Kate nodded and headed towards the elevator.

When they had left, Abby gave Gibbs a proud smile.

'What?' he asked.

'You just told those two something about technology that was true and could actually work!' she explained. Gibbs cracked a smile and gave her a kiss on her temple.

'I'll send McGee down soon to help. I need this yesterday, Abby.'

'I know, Gibbs. Trust me, I know.'

--

Up in the bullpen, almost as soon as Tony and Kate enter, the elevator opened once more. They both turned to see who it was, and was surprised to see Fornell walking out with a couple of FBI agents.

'I'll go get Gibbs.' Kate said, turning to head back down again. Fornell saw her and nodded in greeting to her as he walked straight up to the director's office.

'Gibbs. Fornell's here!' Kate informed him as she got off the elevator, holding it open for him. Gibbs just walked out of the lab and went silently, but angrily, to see the FBI lords.

'So, Kate. How are you holding up?' Abby asked her as she went over some things that Gibbs had gotten her to do.

'I'm fine, Abby. Like I said, this is just another case.' Kate shrugged.

'Ok, but as your best friend, I deserve the right to worry.' She told her. Kate rolled her eyes.

'Like Tony isn't bad enough.' She murmured. 'By the way, Abby, you need to remember that I'm a grown woman and that I can take care of myself.'

'I know that, Kate.'

'Good. So don't check up on me again. Especially by Tony. He's crap at lying sometimes.' She rolled her eyes as Abby faced her again, her eyebrows scrunched up.

'Uh, Kate? I didn't check up on you.' Abby told her.

'You called Tony last night.'

'No, I didn't. I stayed with McGee last night. Was a bit busy, you know.' Kate pulled a disgusted face.

'Ok, I get it!' she paused. 'But if it wasn't you that called, then who was it?' she thought out loud as Abby joined and thought with her. Abby finally realised how to find out.

--

'You let Gibbs put you on protection detail for _me_?' Kate exclaimed as she stopped in front of Tony's desk. McGee took that time and cue to leave, not wanting to get involved.

Abby had told her that she could pull up Tony's cell call log and find out who had called. When they had learnt that it was Gibbs, Kate took a minute and, together with that fact that he had kept her at HQ the day before, and token Tony to MTAC the day before, she had figured out what was going on. Or a least what she thought was going on.

'It's not like I could say no, Kate.' He defended himself. He was now glad that the entire floor was clear.

'Actually, yes, you could have! I don't _need _protecting, Tony! I'm capable to do so myself!'

'I know that, Kate! But I wasn't gonna take any chances either. And even if Gibbs hadn't put you under my protection, don't you think that I would have been there last night too?' he asked rhetorically, looking up at Kate from his seat.

'This is _stupid_! I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice. I don't need the protection!' she exclaimed once again, going to her own desk before slumping into her seat.

Tony got up and went to sit on her desk like he had many times before, usually to tease her, but this time to comfort her.

'Look, Kate. I'm not gonna pretend to not believe you, cos I do. Know you can look after yourself. But with Ari involved, we aren't safe, especially you. He is… _obsessed_ with you, honey. And I agreed with this because if I didn't, then Gibbs would have done it himself, and made it more obvious that you were under protection.' He paused. 'And he also threatened to fire me. I don't know if he meant it, but I know that it was threat that I didn't want to give him an opportunity to carry it out.' Kate laughed at his rambling, knowing that he did it to make her smile.

'And here I was thinking I'd be worth the sacrifice.' She sighed mockingly.

'Huh, you wish!' he joked and she shoved him so he almost fell off the desk. 'Hey! Careful!'

'If you don't get back you your seat, I'll do more than push you off a desk, DiNozzo.' Gibbs said as he passed them.

'Got it, boss.' He replied.

'What did Fornell want?' Kate asked.

'Did McGee get the number?' he ignored her.

'Yeah, he took it down to Abby.' Kate told him. Gibbs got up once again.

'Let's go and I'll explain down there.' They all got into the elevator when Gibbs spoke again. 'And DiNozzo? I threatened to kill you, not fire you.' he said causally. Tony had his mouth in an "oh" expression while Kate smirked at him.

'Have you called yet?' Gibbs asked as he entered the lab once again.

'No answer. I can get a trace if it doesn't go through.' Abby relied, sighing.

'Keep trying!'

'Every 45 seconds, Boss-man!' Gibbs smiled at her response.

'So why was Fornell here?' Kate prompted one gain. Gibbs nodded and stood so that all four of them could see him.

'The FBI has jurisdiction on this too.' He started off.

'So what? They're gonna take over or are we keeping it?' Tony asked. Gibbs looked at them all.

'We're working together on this.' He saw the looks of disgust on all of their faces ad Gibb couldn't help but smirk. 'But that doesn't mean that we have to share. So listen up, cos I'm only gonna say this once. This is _our_ case, so we will continue as we normally would. The FBI isn't entitled to any of our finding until they ask me for it. And I'm sure as hell not going to give it to them.

'How do we work around them Gibbs? If they are going to be here all the time…' Kate asked.

'Only Fornell is going to stay here, with is two agents. The team will communicate through MTAC.' Gibbs paused. 'WE have to find where the PO is and get him safe _first_. Then we go after Ari. Got it?' he barked at them, looking pointedly at Tony.

'Got it, Boss.' He replied with a sigh.

--

At 9.30am, Tony banged his head down onto his desk as Gibbs walked out to get some more coffee.

'Careful, Tony. You might damage what is left of your brain. Of course, one could argue whether you have a brain to start off with.' Kate mocked, smiling at him from her desk. Tony lifted his head to look at her tiredly.

'Do you know what time it is?' he didn't wait for her to reply. 'It's the time that I would normally come into work!'

'Even though work starts at 9?' Kate teased him.

'Even though work starts at 9. But, right now, I am _knackered_. And there is nothing left to do!' he exclaimed, banging his head once more.

'Don't let Gibbs hear you say that. And I'm sure you have paperwork left to do, like I do.'

'I don't wanna do paperwork. I wanna get out there and catch this bastard!' he murmured loudly enough so that Kate could hear it, though his head was still down.

'Too bad that Abby and McGee haven't gotten a trace yet.' Kate sighed. She personally agreed with Tony, and that was saying something.

'There has to be something that we've missed! Thing's aren't slow when Ari's around.' Tony suddenly said, his head snapping up in a rash motion. He looked at Kate as she looked back.

'I can't think of anything, Tony.' She told him after a moment of metal scanning.

'C'mon! There has to be something. Ari doesn't do things half-assed. He does what he wants, when he wants. I mean, he got into here, didn't he? And then he managed to-' he stopped abruptly, not wanting to finished the sentence.

'Then he managed to kidnap me when he needed my skills. Ok, but does he want this time?' Kate finished off for him.

'He wants me!' Gibbs' rough voice came from the side of the bullpen as he walked in with another cup of coffee. 'He said so when he called.'

'Then why am I on protection and not you?' Kate complained.

'Because I am an ex-marine.' He replied. He knew that he had to tell them about the photos soon, but it was need-to-know at the moment, and they didn't need to know right then.

'But then why has he left it till now? He could've got-' Tony was cut off by Gibbs' phone ringing and his quick answer and hang-up.

'Abby has a location.' Was all he needed to say and the three of them went down to the lab via the stairs to make it quicker.

'Where?' was the first this that McGee and Abby heard when the doors to the lab slid open. Abby turned and gave Gibbs the address.

'Gibbs! You havta remember that this may be a trap! Davidson may not have picked up the call. It could have been Ari himself.' Abby warned him. Gibbs nodded at the Goth's concern.

'Ok. But we have to go _now_ or they might move. McGee, you're with us too!' Gibbs ordered. The others looked at each other, Abby giving them all a "be careful" look, before moving to get going.

--

'Uh… not to sound stupid, or anything,' the other three in the car all snorted or smirked at Tony's opening of the sentence. He frowned. 'But, where are the FBI Boss?' he asked, leaning forward to see him.

The address that they were hoping to find the Petty Officer at was about and hour and a half drive away from NCIS, but with Gibbs driving, it would only take about 45 minutes to get there.

'I forgot to tell Fornell.' Gibbs replied gruffly. Tony leaned back in his seat and turned to smile at Kate, who was doing the same. They all knew that Gibbs never 'forgot' anything.

--

Precisely 50 minutes after leaving headquarters, the four agents, all in protective clothing, walked up to the secluded, multi-storey building. They had their guns drawn, and approached with care.

Gibbs signalled for Tony and McGee to go around the back. With a quick glance towards Kate, which Gibbs didn't miss, Tony nodded and followed McGee while the other two stayed and entered through the main entrance.

Inside, Gibbs went left while Kate went right.

'Clear!' he yelled. Although they were there to recover a missing Petty Officer, he was sure that Ari and the rest knew that they were there, so he didn't' bother keeping quiet, but rather kept the safety of the team.

'Clear!' Kate echoed back and the two of them met at the entrance.

'Clear!' McGee's voice came from the back as he approached them. The three of them waited for a second, but dread started to sink in when they didn't hear the fourth yell.

Kate and McGee both looked at Gibbs, who was trying his best to remain calm.

'Which way?' he asked McGee.

'Right.' He replied. Gibbs nodded.

'Go and call for some back-up. The FBI should be about 10 minutes behind.' He revealed to McGee. The Probie knew better than to argue, so he just followed his orders.

'How are we gonna do this, Gibbs?' Kate whispered to him as they carefully treaded to the back of the building.

'First, we take in the surroundings. If DiNozzo's being DiNozzo, he'll keep them occupied for a moment, and we'll have the element of surprised.' He mapped out. Kate frowned.

'And then what?' she asked. She didn't like things when they weren't thought out. Bad things happen when things aren't planned out.

_Bad things happen when Tony's involved and things aren't planned out_, she corrected herself.

**What's gonna happen to Tony? Or is it someone else that will get it?**

**I'm gonna make a deal with you… as I have exams looming closer with each day- I needta get some work done. So it is up to you as to when I update, as I'll be waiting for 60 reviews before I post the next chapter! This way – I get work done and I don't feel bad for keeping you guys hanging!**

**Please R&R – even if it's for your own sake!**

**Tiana xXx**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey!**

**I didn't expect that many reviews that quickly! So I had to type this up just for you guys! **

**Thanks to everyone that reviewed!**

**campbellk2****- thanks for your honesty! I've added more thoughts in here as it fitted, and the 'havta' s may remain, but I'll try to cut it down. It's the way I speak so sorry. I hope you enjoy this.**

**Please R&R!**

**Enjoy!**

**Tiana xXx**

Gibbs and Kate approached carefully, turning each corner, both in hope to find an empty room, though it meant no Tony. It also meant no dead Tony.

With each turn, Gibbs would nod to Kate, who was behind him. He was proud of his agents, though he would never tell them. He was proud of Kate and Tony as they had stuck to their promise and kept personal from work, although sometimes work was personal. Right then he was proud of Kate as she didn't seem any more neurotic than in a normal 'hostage' situation. Personal from work. Although he had first thought that the relationship was a disaster to happen, what with Tony being in it, he was glad it wasn't, not only because of the mess it would cause, but because he was glad his agents were so happy. And he was proud of Tony for keeping it for this long and not breaking Kate's heart.

_Now let's keep it that way_ he thought, indicating to Kate to go to the next room. They both got to the door, one on either side, and they listened for a minute. It was the only room with the door shut, so here must be something special in it, they assumed.

The minute they waited seemed like an hour to Kate. Then, finally, they heard a voice. Tony's voice. A part of Kate relaxed, even though she didn't know she had tensed in the first place.

Gibbs has to do some quick thinking. He kept an ear out for any other noises, but all that he could hear was Tony. He couldn't even hear what he was saying, nor who he was talking to. He had no idea how many people were in the room, and he had no way of getting a signal through to DiNozzo without maybe alerting whoever was with him.

Glancing around the room, Gibbs finally noticed another door, which was slightly out of view due to their positions, but this was open too. He signalled to Kate to stay there while he went to check it out. She nodded and he crept nearer, hoping to find another way into the room.

Slipping into the other room, he was glad to find it empty, but not so happy to see that it was corridor with no other doors. Gibbs walked the length of it just to make sure before heading back to where Kate was stationed.

As she saw him come back, Gibbs shook his head and Kate nodded tightly. Their options were running out.

--

Tony stood facing the door, and he had to wonder whether the guy with his gun on him was deaf. Maybe it was the Special Agent in him, or the long time effects of Abby's music, but he could clearly hear the footsteps outside the door, even though he was farther away from it than the other guy.

Strategically, Tony raised his voice when he spoke again. He didn't know how much Kate and Gibbs, and maybe McGee too, could hear.

'Look, there's only one of you and I've got backup coming.' He said, hoping that it was loud enough to get the message through. 'So why don't we just talk this through?' Tony smiled at the end, but unfortunately, the guy with the gun was just that; a guy. So the smile went ineffective.

--

Both Kate and Gibbs smiled, well; Gibbs smirked, when they heard Tony's words loud and clearly. Kate placed a hand on the door handle and looked at her boss to give her the go-ahead.

Gibbs nodded after securing his Sig and making sure that Kate had checked hers too.

Kate took a breath before gently pushing down on the handle, careful not to make a noise nor a squeak. Once the handle was fully down, she put little strength into opening the door, pulling it out.

At first she opened only enough to peak in with, just to make sure that nothing had changed since Tony had spoken up. She held her breath as she took in the room, not wanting whoever had their back to her to notice she was there.

She shifted slightly so that she could see the rest of the room too. Her eyes finally laid on her partner. He was standing almost opposite her, his gun on the ground before him. Behind him was a chair. And a person. Petty Officer Davidson.

_Dammit Tony! Playing the hero again!_ She thought as she moved back a bit to look at Gibbs. Now, she motioned to him to follow her out of the room they were in and into the one before it. They stood so they could still see the other door, slightly ajar, to make sure nothing changed.

'Petty Office Davidson is in there. Tony's protecting him. Apart from that, it's just this other guy.' Kate explained to him, her voice low. Gibbs nodded and for the first time since moving, he looked towards the way that they had come into the building.

'It's not Ari?' he made sure.

'Definitely not.'

'He has to be nearby here somewhere!' Gibbs scowled.

'Gibbs, you were the one that said we were going to get the PO first and then Ari!' Kate reminded him. She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye, before beckoning McGee to them.

'Yes Boss?' he asked, whispering.

'Did you call for backup?'

'Yes Boss. 2 minutes ago.'

'Ok. When they get here, set them on a perimeter search. Ari is close.' Gibbs instructed.

'Got it Boss.' McGee lingered for a moment. 'Uh, Boss?'

'What?' he snapped.

'I was just wondering about Tony?' he asked shyly. Kate tore her eyes away from the door to give him a reassuring smile, not trusting Gibbs.

'He's fine.' She told him and McGee nodded and walked out. Gibbs glared at her. 'What?' she asked him. He shook his head and then continued to think about what to do.

'Ok. Do you know if the guy was armed?' he asked.

'I think so. He had Tony unarm himself, so I think so.' Kate replied, thinking logically.

'Ok. I'll go in and try to get him to give it up. It'll be easy if he's on his own.' Gibbs said confidently. Now it was Kate's turn to glare at him.

'No! Ari is after _you_. If that guy in there is working with him, then how do you know that he doesn't have instructions to kill you?' Kate snapped.

'I don't. But I'm armed and I have a vest on. And, unlike you, I'm not under protection either.'

'_You're_ the one that put me under protection!' Kate argued. Gibbs gave her a know-it-all smirk.

'Exactly. And I'm your boss, so you'll do as I say.' Gibbs checked his gun once more before nearing the room. Kate sighed heavily and followed him.

When Gibbs rested his hand on the door to pull it open even more, inch by inch, Kate hid next to the door so she would be covered by it when it opened fully. He gave her a nod before slipping into the room. Kate held her breath to try to hear what was going on inside as she shut the door silently, only leaving a bit ajar so she could hear and see inside. She prayed that it would happen as clearly as Gibbs predicted it would.

--

As soon as Gibbs had fully entered the room, without a sound, he was glad that DiNozzo hadn't made any obvious gesture to alert the guy of his presence. Gibbs lifted his gun to the guy's neck.

'Drop the weapon.' He hissed. The guy froze for a second. Then he tensed once again as if he was getting over his shock.

'Go on, shoot me.' The man dared. 'The time it takes you to do so, I'll have a round in your agent too.' He laughed.

Gibbs looked at Tony, who still stood protectively in front of the PO, not looking scared at all, though he knew he must've been. No-one can have a gun pointed at them and not feel scared witless.

'Why don't we just talk about this?' Gibbs said. He saw Tony was about to open his mouth but Gibbs' look told him to let him handle it.

'What's the point?' the man scoffed, cocking his gun. Tony visibly tensed. 'It doesn't have to be you. Just move.' The guy taunted him.

'No.' Tony simply answered. Right then, with a gun pointed at his shoulder where the vest didn't cover, he didn't want to say anything stupid, so he kept his mouth shut, knowing the odds of saying something and pissing the guy off was high considering it was him.

'C'mon. You know that you don't want to do this.' Gibbs tried. The guy smirked and Tony slid his eyes to Gibbs and then finally to the door. For the first time, he saw how little it was open, yet he could still see Kate peering in.

--

Kate couldn't stand just looking into the room anymore. She wanted to be in there. But she couldn't so she stuck to peering into the room, hoping to catch Tony's eye.

When she finally did, she was glad to see Tony relax a bit. She didn't know why, but she was glad anyway. Kate looked at his position, and realised that he hadn't moved any part of his body but just shifted his eyes.

Kate held his eyes for a while but then he broke the contact when the guy began to talk.

--

'Hey!' the guy yelled at Tony, capturing his attention once again. 'What're you looking at?'

'Nothing.' He replied, putting all his effort into sounding honest.

'You can't get out of here!' the guy spat, assuming that that was why Tony had been looking at the door.

Tony put his hands up in a surrendering style.

'Ok.' Was all that he said.

--

On the other side of the door, Kate had moved from her position to rest her back against the wall, breathing deeply as she listened in on what the guy was saying. She hoped that she hadn't been caught out.

The muffled voices of Tony and the guy caused her to steady her breathing. She was the only back-up they had right then and she had to keep her cool. Carefully, she pushed off of the wall and went back into her position to look into the room, not before making sure that the other guy wasn't looking at her first.

When she was sure, she looked into the room, and once again, saw what she hated.

In front of her, the guy with the gun on Tony had is back to her still, while Gibbs was side on to her, his gun on the guy's neck. Tony was opposite her, talking to the guy, hands up in a surrendering style, while the guy behind him was still not visible.

--

'Just put the gun down.' Gibbs tried to reason with him now. 'You'll get off a lot easier.'

'I don't care.' The guy cried, almost hysterically. Tony shared a quick look with Gibbs. They both know what this situation meant.

'Who's making you do this?' Gibbs now asked.

'What makes you think someone's making me do this?' the guy snapped. His eyes never left Tony, but he was talking to Gibbs.

'For one, my agent would be dead right now if this was your idea. Now tell me who it is.'

'No!' he cried hysterically.

--

Tony took in a breath. He tried to weigh up the situation.

_There's a hysterical guy with a gun pointing at me… not much else to worry about_ was all that he could think about. The Petty Officer behind him was still awake, but his hands were bound as was his mouth.

Suddenly there was a noise on the other side of the door. It broke all of Tony's concentration and thought. He could only think of one thing; Kate.

--

Kate had been looking into the room, still trying to take in the sight and trying to come up with a way to get them out safely, when something had startled her.

An Agent had passed by the window to her left, casting a shadow into the room. It had caught her off guard, and in result of it, she had hit the wall with her shoulder. After she had done so, she held her breath, praying that it didn't cause a sound ripple.

--

The sound was low. Very low, but Tony managed to hear it, and by the look on his face, Gibbs had no doubt heard it too. But his assumption from before was now at stake. Tony prayed that the guy really was selectively deaf.

Unfortunately, he wasn't.

'What was that?' he asked Tony.

'How the hell would I know? I'm standing here with a gun on me!' he shot back.

'You can see! Who was there?'

'No-one.' Toy replied nonchalantly.

'I don't believe you.'

_State the obvious_ Tony thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

'Why don't you look and see for yourself then?' Tony suggested loudly once again to get the message to Kate.

The guy stared at him hard, and Tony realised, for the first time, that he had one blue eye and one brown eye. Slowly, without releasing his grip on his gun, nor lowering it, he turned his head for the first time since Gibbs had entered the room.

Just as his eyes had rested on the door behind him, Gibbs moved in lightening fashion, as he was known to, and grabbed the guy's hand and the gun.

Tony had ducked down, just in case he pulled the trigger while Gibbs fought for it. As he did so, he picked up his own gun.

But then, as he tried to stand up, he heard another cold voice.

'Drop it.' The voice hissed. Tony dropped the gun as a knife came around his neck. Slowly, he was forced to stand up.

Gibbs had gotten the gun out of the guy's hand, and would have punched the crap out of him if the voice hadn't stopped him. He turned to face his agent, only to find him standing with a knife at his throat. Held there by Petty Officer Davidson.

'And you thought that I was on my own…' the guy taunted. Gibbs had his gun at his neck once again. He cocked it in a threat.

'You pull that trigger and I slide this knife.' The PO informed him. Gibbs didn't flinch, and he was glad that Tony didn't either.

_Dammit DiNozzo!_ He thought to himself. He didn't know why he thought that, but he did.

'Why are you doing this, Davidson?' Gibbs tried to talk to him.

'It's the only way.' He replied as if it was the most obvious answer.

'No, it's not. It's the coward way.' Gibbs sneered. Davidson smirked and Gibbs could see the cracks on his lips where the tape must have pulled off the skin.

'You seem to forget I have a knife to your Agent's throat, Agent Gibbs.'

'You know my name.' It was more of a statement than a question.

'Who doesn't know of the famous Leroy Jethro Gibbs?' Gibbs smiled proudly.

'I have a gun to your accomplice's neck. How about we stop with the threats and you give me what I want?'

'What makes you think I care about _him_?' The Petty Officer spat out the last word like venom.

'If you didn't then my Agent would be dead.' Gibbs smirked but missed the look that Tony threw at him.

Tony stood still and quietly. But when Gibbs said that, he resisted the urge to yell. It was twice now that he had made that comment, and Tony was getting worried now that the person with a weapon on him would go "You're right" and just kill him.

--

The door was now getting on Kate's nerves. A lot. When she saw the PO get up and hold a knife to her boyfriend's throat, she had to fight all instincts to go in there and remain where she was.

Backup had arrived about a second before but none of them were prepared to go in, instead they were planning everything out.

_Gibbs had this planned out. Look where it's got them_ she scoffed to herself.

Kate slowly pulled the door open by another inch. She had to be careful. It wasn't only Tony that could see her anymore.

--

Tony kept an eye on the door, wanting to make sure that the guy with a knife at his throat never saw Kate. He also needed something to focus on other than the fact that he was a single movement away from death.

When Kate had finally peeked in once again, Tony could see the fear in her eyes. He had learned long ago to read her eyes in the seconds before they clouded over and hardened to stop anyone from reading them.

She sent him an encouraging smile before backing away from the door. He assumed that backup must have arrived by then. That is if Gibbs had sent for backup.

_Surely Gibbs wouldn't be that stupid and madly driven to take Ari down himself_ Tony fought with himself.

There was still conversation, if you could call it that, going on between Gibbs and Petty Officer Davidson, but Tony had tuned it out to look for a way out.

_Can I still call this guy with a knife to my throat a PO?_ His thoughts had started to wander from the job at hand.

All of a sudden, there was a sound. And then the world stopped. No one spoke, no one moved.

It sounded like a gun being shot, but it wasn't in there. It sounded like glass breaking, but it wasn't in there either. It sounded like a painful gasp, but it wasn't in there.

It was out there. And Tony could only think of one thing.

Kate.

**Whoa! Took me 3 hours to do this! I just couldn't get it perfect… I dunno if it is but I wanted to update.**

**I hope you liked it. Lemme know please? It'll give me a move on with my revision and updates!**

**Tiana xXX**


	8. Chapter 8

**HEY!**

**Sorry for the long wait but I have exams. I don't have any tomorrow, so I thought I'd update. Sorry its short, but I had to get something out for my GREAT FANS! Lol…**

**Tiana xXx**

The situation that they were in had frozen. The only thing that Tony wanted to do was to get out of that room and into the other. But he couldn't. Not with a knife to his throat. That's when his brain started to function once again.

With a motion so quick that Gibbs would have been proud off, Tony took a risk and pulled the guy's hand and ark away from his neck. The movement was quick, but the knife was sharp, and it managed to nick him at the side of his collar bone. He didn't notice nor care.

Twisting the arm back behind his body, not trying to be gentle at all, the struggle had captures Gibbs and the guy's attention. Gibbs kept his gun on him, but smiled proudly at Tony as he hand cuffed the Petty Officer.

Tony went for his gun and picked it up as Davidson tried to kick his legs out from under him. In his frustration, Tony shot him in the leg.

Gibbs had handcuffed his guy too when he heard the shot. He threw Tony a "what the hell?" look, but Tony just shrugged it off, causing him to smirk.

The shot had claimed, finally, enough attention for the door to slam open with another 2 back-up agents.

_But not Kate_ both Tony and Gibbs thought.

The agents came in and checked that they were ok before Tony was allowed to get out of there. It was only a second check, but it lasted for hours to him. Gibbs nodded his head as Tony walked out, giving him permission to go while he made sure that the two guys were kept handcuffed.

In the room he went into, the first thing that he looked for was Kate. But the first thing that he saw was blood. It was like in all those horror movies that he watched, and had forced Kate to watch. There was a trail of blood, which usually led up to a dead body, which was true both in the films and in his experience.

Tony hoped that he was wrong and that this went against everything he knew.

--

Gibbs was still in the other room when his phone buzzed. He hesitantly answered it.

'Gibbs!' he snapped. There wad a laugh on the other end and Gibbs knew immediately who it was. His angler boiled. 'Ari. Your men failed.'

'Did they? I don't know, Agent Gibbs. I always get what I want. And that includes a bullet in your agent.' He hung up Gibbs style as Gibbs stared at his phone before tucking it away.

_Kate!_ He thought, leaving the room with the guys in care of the two agents to enter the other room, in dread for what he might see.

--

Tony followed the trail with his eyes, everything in slow motion as he did so. When the trail ended, his eyes rested on Kate.

Kate was standing next to the shattered window, her back flat against the wall and just peering across the block.

Tony had his gun drawn and was at her side in an instant wondering why there were no other agents there in the room with her.

_She probably sent them into the room where we were_ he told himself, knowing that that is something that Kate would do.

'He's gone!' she hissed to him.

'Kate! You're bleeding!' he pointed out. Her right arm had a trail of blood going the length of it, starting at the shoulder and ending at her finger nails, where it dripped off. Tony noticed that he bullet had entered at the side of her arm.

'Yeah, I got that.' Kate said sarcastically. Her voice was low and Tony could see that the loss of blood was taking its effect.

'Hey!' he yelled, turning back to see some more agents coming into the room. 'Get an ambulance, _now_!' he ordered. The agent must have been a Probie as they jumped and did exactly what he said with no further questions. Tony turned back to Kate.

'Sit down.' He instructed, gently helping her. 'Now, talk to me.' He knew that if he didn't then she might pass out.

It was right then that Gibbs came in. he went straight to his agents, not impressed by the sight of Tony pressing some kind of cloth against Kate's shoulder. He knew what had happened.

'There was a shooter. From the other side of the block, on the building top. Sniper' she took a shaky breath. 'Shot me through the window. I tried to get him, but I couldn't.'

'You're lucky you weren't killed!' Tony murmured as Gibbs slapped him. 'Sorry.' He said sympathetically to his girlfriend. She smiled and blinked slowly, allowing her eyes to rest for a second.

'It was Ari.' She confessed. Gibbs nodded and Tony pressed against her wound even harder, his jaw tight. She hissed in pain, but he had to stop the bleeding. She was losing a lot of blood, fast.

He was no doctor, but he had seen enough bullet wounds, and being a Phys Ed major too, to know that it must have caused some serious damaged inside her shoulder.

'Where the hells are the EMTs?' Gibbs yelled to any random agent.

The agent ran out to check. Kate opened her eyes once more to see Tony trying to check her wound, but to no avail. Each time he tried, the blood would profusely run down her arm.

'You're bleeding.' She told him. Tony's attention went to her immediately. 'Your collar.' Her eyes were heavy and he could see it was all taking a toll on her.

'It's nothing.' He dismissed. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Gibbs talking to McGee, not look too happy. Then again, neither was McGee.

_Well, when you see your fellow workmate bleeding after being shot, sitting on the ground, eyes hardly open-_ Tony caught himself, angry that he had thought so much, before he went any further. He knew where those thought led to, but he wouldn't allow himself to let it in. Not now. Not when it was so close to reality.

Just then he heard the familiar sounds of sirens that he never thought he'd be glad to hear.

Turning back, he wasn't happy to see Kate with her eyes closed, head back and breathing heavily.

'Hey, c'mon. The medics are ere now. Just stay awake for me.' He whispered desperately. Thankfully, she slowly opened her eyes.

'I can't, Tony.' She murmured.

'Yes you can. C'mon.' he lifted a hand to stroke her cheek to give her something else to focus on. He didn't even notice that there was blood on it. Her blood.

'It hurts.' She admitted. Tony knew that Kate was a proud woman, and although he had found joy in the fact that she let him in now, right then, he didn't.

'I know it does, baby. But you have to hold on. Just for another minute.' He begged her. She gulped and Tony could see how hard it really was for her.

'I can't, Tony. Just let me rest.' She replied.

'No! You're not weak, Kate.' He shot at her, hoping to get a response from her other than the weak smile that came onto her lips. Hell, even a slap right then would have been good.

Tony looked over his shoulder once again to see Gibbs looked at them.

Although he had turned back as soon as he had seen his Boss, Gibbs knew that it wasn't good. Now they were waiting for the ambulance. The FBI had to check everything that entered and left the area to make sure that Ari, or his men, weren't on the vehicle, or anything alike.

_Great! So they'll just let my agent suffer!_

Gibbs was just going to go to see what was taking so long when he saw, through the open door, the vehicle pulling up. He sighed, but before he could say anything, Tony beat him to it.

'Boss!' his voice was filled with so many raw emotions that Gibbs knew it wasn't good. 'I lost her!'

**Argh! Sorry but I had to stop there!**

**Please R&R! I will update soon – hopefully!**

**Reviews make me happy which make me pass exams! So you don't wanna be responsible for me failing do you? Lol.**

**Tiana xXx**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey!**

**Wow! Great reviews for the last chapter! So I'm gonna try to give you a great chapter…**

**It's more fluff than plot I guess – but I hope you enjoy it anyways.**

**Please R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**

Everything moved slowly after that. One second, Tony was looking into her deep brown eyes, and the next they were shut, and weren't opening again.

_They will open_ he urged mentally. After a minute, he yelled to Gibbs what had happened, before turning back, wanting to see Kate's eyes looking back at him. Unfortunately, it never happened.

Gently, with a shaking hand, he checked her pulse. He didn't know what to expect. After a moment, Tony started to panic. He was checking her neck for a beat, but he couldn't find one. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he reassured himself that he was just looking in the wrong place. He slipped his hand down to her wrist, using his knowledge from college to find her pulse by following her thumb down. Once again, he held his breath to steady his own pulse as if it would interfere with hers, if there was one.

_Of course there is…_

Tony physically relaxed when he was able to count the weak beats of his partner's blood passing under his fingers.

_She's just asleep_ he told himself, although he knew it was a bit more than that.

The only thing that made him turn away from her was Gibbs' voice instructing what he assumed to be the EMTs where the injured party was. An arm came from his side to take over the pressure that he had on her shoulder, while someone else pulled him away from her.

He fought to stay with her, but Gibbs' logic that him moving would mean Kate getting he best that she could from the medics caused him to shift in an instant, but never removing his eyes off of her.

Somewhere from being in that room and in the ambulance with Kate, Tony had gotten rid of his bullet proof vest, hating the heaviness of it that represented more than safety. Like responsibility, carefulness, and right then, grief.

Ari had known that she had been wearing a vest. That's why he shot her from the side. Like a coward. At least, that was what Tony had concluded while he had waited for them to move Kate.

The EMT with the two of them in the back of the emergency vehicle asked Tony about his cut as she finally sat down after checking everything on Kate.

'It's nothing.' He repeated his words to her now.

'It looks pretty deep. It might need a stitch or two.' The lady replied. She was chirpy, but not in the overly kind which would have pissed him off.

'Later.' Was all he said.

'Is the blood Agent Todd's?'

'Yeah.' The lady nodded before carrying on with the monitor checking as they got nearer to Bethesda.

Tony sat with Kate's hand in his, held tightly to let her know, on the unconscious level, that he was there. The medics had explained how the loss of blood had knocked her out and how they wouldn't know the full extent of the damage until they get to the hospital.

As he sat, it was only then that he realised the significance of that the bullet was in the right shoulder. And that she was right handed. Putting the two together wasn't good.

_She has to get better. Otherwise, she might lose her job_ Tony thought.

--

Behind the ambulance, and in front, were agents in black SUVs and cars to make sure that it got to the hospital safely. Gibbs was in the car bringing up the rear, thinking the same thing as Tony was.

He knew how much damage a shot to the shoulder could do, and he was worried.

Gibbs had let Abby know about the call being from Ari and had sent McGee to stay and help her at NCSI until he got there. He expected the argument from her when she heard about her best mate to go to see Kate, but he stood his ground.

'Ari is out there. He's got to Kate now, and there is no telling who else he'll be after. So you'll sty there until I say so, ok?' he hadn't waited for a reply as the medics had loaded Kate into the vehicle.

As Tony was already on her protection, he ordered him to stay with her. Not like he could have persuaded him otherwise.

The drive to Bethesda wasn't as long as he thought it would be. But as he approached, and the Feds checked the area and the building out, he realised that he had to tell them about the pictures of them.

--

6 hours later, and Tony sat in Kate's room, alone at last. Well, alone as he could be with two Agents on guard outside the room and one inside.

As soon as they had arrived at the hospital, the doctor's had rushed Kate into a Trauma Bay, not allowing any of them to see her. Gibbs had tried to get the doctor to let them through, arguing about how she needed special protection. But before anything could have been done, she had to go into surgery to get the bullet out.

The surgery had taken a little over an hour, but it had seemed like a day and a half to both Tony and Gibbs who had waited. Once she had been wheeled out and into her own special room, checked over by the nurses and doctors; they had been let in to see her.

It was another hour before Gibbs had left, instructing the Agents not to let anyone in unless they knew them and identified them. He had given Tony instructions to never leave Kate's side, not like he would have anyway. Telling him that he would let his agent know on any progress, just as he had to report back to him about Kate, Gibbs had left.

Now he sat in the hard chair once again, just like 2 months ago. With a grip on her hand, Tony was reassured with the fact that the bullet shot wasn't as bad as her previous broken rib was.

The doctor who performed the surgery on her had explained that the previous recent exposure to anaesthetic meant that Kate was likely to come around this time more quickly.

There was nothing for Tony to do or to focus on in there. The guard on the inside didn't seem like the talking type, and Tony really wasn't up for talking anyways, unless it was to Kate herself. He wouldn't mind talking to her while she was unconscious, but the agent made him self-conscious, so he didn't.

The sound of rain suddenly registered in his mind. He looked over his shoulder before realising that Kate had been placed into a room with no windows, for obvious reasons. Tony didn't know where the sound of the rain falling and bouncing off of the building was coming from, but he liked it. It was rather soothing for him. Rain brought him some good times, he remembered.

_:: Flashback :: _

It was a day that he wasn't going to forget for a long time. Although he had been getting in trouble all day for being on his phone, Tony really wanted to know where his car had got to. Unfortunately, when he did finally find out it was on the news. And he saw it crash.

Kate had to laugh along with the others, it was just too funny. Especially at the look on her partner's face.

When Gibbs had let them go about 30 minutes later, she had ended up in the elevator with just Tony. He was in a mood, but then again, she couldn't blame him. As they exited the metal box downstairs, she noticed that it was raining and she saw Tony frown.

There was a little thing inside of her that ached for him. She felt pity for him, along with some other feelings that she wouldn't admit.

'You need a lift, Tony?' she asked him from next to him. He just looked at her before turning to the rain once again and then back to her. He shrugged.

'Only cos my clothes are too valuable to get wet.' He said casually.

'Uh-huh. Sure.' She laughed as he smiled to her in a 'thank you' way.

Half way along the journey home and the weather had taken a turn for the worse. It had started to thunder, with lightning shooting down soon after each mega-boom. Kate sighed; she hated storms.

'Hey…' she thought about it carefully, not wanting to mess her words up unintentionally, 'would you mind staying at mine tonight?' Tony looked over at her and smirked. Kate groaned inwardly.

_So much for not messing it up_.

'That depends. What's the reason why?' he asked, with an underlying tone of suggestive content.

'The fact that it's lightening and I'm not going to drive another second more than I need to.' She said matter-of-factly.

'Oh. Fine then.' He mockingly sighed, making Kate laugh.

'Good. But you do _anything_ to piss me off, and I'm chucking you out. Car or no car, rain or no rain. Clear?'

'Clear as a wet white shir-' Tony stopped is metaphor when Kate gave him a quick glare. 'Crystal.'

'That's all you had to say.'

--

As they entered her apartment, they were soaked to the bone with the run they had made from the car to the door.

Laughing so much that her sides killed, Kate dumped her bag on the floor next to the door as Tony followed suite. They both took off their coats and Kate took them to hang somewhere where they could dry.

'I'm gonna take a shower. You can use the bathroom if you want one too.' Kate informed him. Tony just grinned at her.

'But, Katie, aren't _you_ gonna be in the bathroom?' he asked, cocking his head to the side, grinning suggestively. Kate rolled her eyes as she walked down the hall to her room, switching on all the lights that she passed.

'I'll be using _my_ en suite. You can use the main one.' She pointed out, grabbing a couple of towels from the closet and placing them in his arms.

'Now, where's the fun in that?' he pouted.

'I'm sure we'll survive.' She whispered to him before shoving him into the bathroom and turning back to her room. Tony yelled after her, telling her that she'd be missing out.

_You have _no_ idea_… Kate thought to herself as she stepped into her own slightly lukewarm shower.

--

At 9pm, Tony dragged Kate to her sofa from the kitchen to watch some movie that he knew was going to be on.

'Tony! I really don't wanna watch a movie with you if you're gonna talk through it.' She complained. She was only half joking. The half of her was being serious. If she had to sit on the same couch as him, she knew that contact was inevitable, and then she might no longer be held responsible for her actions.

'I won't talk through it. I promise. Scout's honour!' he put two fingers to his temple in a saluting style.

'There was no way that you were a Scout.' Kate argued as she settled on her couch, her legs under her.

'And why not?' he argued back.

'Were you?' she countered. Tony shushed her.

'No talking. Movie's on.' He smirked as she rolled her eyes.

--

'That was-' Kate didn't know what she was going to say. Instead she yawned.

'It was _good_.' Tony commented. Kate had her head on his shoulder, but he had been too conscious of it to make a move and place his arm around her shoulders.

'Whatever.' She replied, too tried to care. It was just past 11pm, and it had been long day.

'Maybe we should get you into bed…' he said, knowing it would get a response from her, although he had meant it innocently.

'Tony!' she sat up straight to see his smirking face.

'Uh-uh. Someone's not being the Catholic School girl they use to be, tut, tut, tut.' He laughed.

'That's because it came out of _your_ mouth, Tony.' Kate retorted. Tony scoffed.

'You're the one who thought I was making an innuendo!' he replied.

'Do you even know what that word means?' she asked, an eyebrow raised.

'Of course I do! What do you think I am? Stupid?' Kate opened her mouth to speak, but Tony beat her to it. 'Don't answer that.' Kate smirked

'You know, you're kinda like 'Zoolander'.' She teased.

'You tryna say I'm a good looking super model with a great sense of humour, Katie?' Tony smiled his smile as Kate couldn't help but smile back teasingly.

'More like you're an idiot.' She pointed out.

'But I still look good, right?'

'Shame about the humour.' Kate argued. Tony held a hand on his heart.

'I didn't know you felt that way.' He pouted, acting sad.

'You have no idea how I feel.' The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

As soon as she realised what she had said, Kate turned away from him in sheer embarrassment. She wished that could blame the alcohol speaking, but she hadn't had any that night. The only thing that she could blame was Tony himself, being so close to her right then.

'Really? And how is it that you feel?' Tony had caught on. His voice was low and seductive. He had been momentarily shocked by her words, but had gotten over it fast. He didn't want to jump to false conclusions.

What Kate didn't answer, Tony turned on the couch to face her. He placed his arm along the back of it so that he could casually touch her cheek to get a response from her.

He felt her lean into his hand for a second before looking up at him.

Kate hadn't realised the closeness of the two of them until now when she looked into his devil-may-care blue eyes.

'Do you really have to ask?' Kate whispered to him. He didn't reply, but instead pulled her closer to him. His lips brushed her forehead before lowering to her temple and then finally to her lips.

It was brief and sweet. No passion in it, no tongue, just a statement of understanding. When they pulled apart to look at each other, each saw what they wanted in each other's eyes.

This time when they met, it was passionate. Too passionate. If neither one of them had been kissed. In all honesty, this single kiss didn't compare to any other for either of them.

Kate pulled back with her hands on his chest, shaking her head.

'What is it?' Tony asked. His voice was slow and a bit husk. Kate smiled, but then covered it with concern.

'I don't wanna do this if I'm gonna end up like another one of your bimbos.' She admitted. Tony was taken aback for a moment. In the silence, he could hear the thundering still going on.

When Tony didn't respond back immediately, Kate started to get up, but a tug on her wrist as she stood made her turn around once again.

'Hey, you won't.' he gently pulled her back. He hated the fact hat she tried to resist, but he finally got her to sit right next to him. 'Trust me, you won't.' he paused to see the words sink in to her. 'I mean, half of those bimbos are blonde and can't work a gun. Just that would scare me to leave you.' Tony joked.

_Typical_ Kate thought.

'Promise?'

'I promise.' He swore. Kate nodded and allowed him to kiss her once again. It was just like the previous one, but this time she had no dread. No feelings expect for happiness and passion.

'Let's move.' She murmured interrupting the kiss. Kate stood up, pulling him with her by the hand down the hallway to her room.

--

The morning sunlight woke her up. She was facing the windows, on which the drapes were slightly open.

Suddenly, all of the memories of the night before came to her and what was clear in the moonlight now became messed up in the sunlight.

Kate turned a bit, but it was quite hard to with two arms around her waist and a leg draped possessively, and protectively, on her own legs. She ran a hand up one of the arms around her, loving the feel of them.

Her movements woke Tony up from his slumber. The first thing he saw was Kate's hair, and then her bare shoulders. He leaned in to kiss it, loving the fact that he could.

'Morning.' He mumbled into her shoulder.

'Morning.' Kate replied. They laid like that for a minute or 5 before Kate turned onto her back, causing Tony to prop himself up on his elbow.

'Hey.' He smiled at her, causing her to smile back, although it was forced. 'What is it?' he asked, panicked slightly, though he didn't show it.

'You don't regret it?' she asked.

'I'm still here, aren't I?' he placed his other hand on the other side of her face so that he could lean over her. 'Do you?'

'No…' she pulled him down for a kiss, loving that fact hat she could just do that. 'Although…' she began when he pulled away.

'Although…?' Tony asked her, narrowing his eyes.

'We have to go slow.' She told him. Tony got confused. It wasn't fair on him; it was too early and he was in bed with the woman of his dreams.

'Slow?'

'Yeah… like no repeats of last night until… oh I dunno… the 3rd or 5th date. This, of course means, going out on a date first.' Kate explained.

'Why?' Tony asked, sounding like a 5 year old.

'Cos most of your relationships start with sex, and basically end that way too. And I've got to admit… mine don't have much of a reputation either.'

'Fine. No sex. I can do that.' He nodded to himself to make it more of a statement. 'So I guess kissing is out of the question too, huh?'

'Well… I guess we could count last night as the 1st date.' She told him innocently.

'Good. Cos I'll need something to keep me going for the next week.' He said, kissing her once again. It was still a novelty for them.

'A week?' Kate asked when they broke apart.

'Yeah, a week. One date a night. Therefore, a week until the 5th date. Unless you wanna do it more traditionally and keep it once a week?'

'Screw traditional.' Kate said hurriedly, causing them both to laugh.

Tony kissed her once more before leaning back and lying on the bed next to her just to see her face and to remember just how beautiful she is.

_: End Flashback :_

Tony now sat looking at the same face 8 months later, although now she was in hospital and he couldn't kiss her or hold her to keep her from harm. Her face was still as beautiful, and she looked as if she _was_ sleeping, if it wasn't for the passing looks of pain that had suddenly came across her face. And then for the rapid blinking of her eyes.

'Kate?' Tony suddenly called out to her, realising what it meant. 'C'mon honey, open your eyes for me.' He gently coaxed her.

'Tony?' was the first word out of Kate's mouth. Although if didn't really come out. She more like mouthed it for him to read.

'I'm right here.' He assured her.

'Where…?' she couldn't finish the sentence. All her effort was going into opening her eyes.

'You're in hospital. Everything's going to be ok. Just relax.' He added when he saw panic rise to her face. It was more reassurance for himself as well as for her. Everything's going to be ok.'

**I thought I'd throw in how they had gotten together seeing as I hadn't before hand.**

**Btw – I was just wondering whether I should introduce Ziva in, or just another OC agent for the 'replacement' of Kate? **

**Please R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey! **

**Thanks for the great reviews! **

**You can thank my lil sister for naggin me to update this quick! And of course your reviews DID help me get a move on too!**

**Please R&R this too!**

**I've taken into account what everyone said about me bringing in Ziva or an OC and you'll see what I decided either this chapter or the next!**

**Tiana xXx**

Tony had let the guard know that Kate was awake, who had then in turn called her doctor. When he was doing all the checks on her, Tony called Gibbs to let him know that she was awake.

It was now almost dawn the next morning and things had been sorted out. Although Tony wasn't happy with the decision, neither was Gibbs but it was absolutely necessary. He had convinced the doctor to let Kate out of the hospital that morning. Of course the doctor had objected straight away.

'She has just had surgery, Agent Gibbs! I cannot allow her to go anywhere where there will be no doctors or nurses to look after her.' He had told him. Gibbs had smirked at his words and Tony and Kate, who were in her room with them, both shared a look. A smirk wasn't good.

'She won't be alone. We have a ME with us at NCIS. Also, Dr. Leery will be coming with us.' He informed him, although it was news to Tony and Kate too.

'She will?' the almost balding doctor asked the Special Agent.

'Yes she will. And I can assure you that as soon as she is safe, Agent Todd will be back here in an instant.' Kate opened her mouth to protest, but a look from Gibbs shut her up.

The doctor rubbed his wrinkled forehead and sighed.

'Well, if Dr. Leery will be there to take care of her, I guess I could allow her to be discharged, as long as she comes back _as soon as_ she is out of danger.' He stated.

'You have our word.' Gibbs replied and then looked at Kate, who still sat in her bed. 'Doesn't he?'

'Yes.' She forced out. She was sure that she could weasel her way out of this once Ari was caught.

_If he is caught_ a voice at the back of her head told her. _When! _Another voice hissed back, knowing that neither Gibbs nor Tony, or herself for that matter, would rest until he was captured, just like Tony had vowed to her last night.

The doctor exited quickly and Gibbs went over to the bed to join his two agents.

'No-one is to leave NCIS unless I say so, clear? If not then neither of you are going to leave this hospital!' he snapped.

'Got it, boss.' Tony replied for the two of them as Kate nodded.

'Good. Now get ready to go. We need to leave before it gets busy outside.' He instructed before turning to leave the room.

--

The journey back to headquarters wasn't that long as they had expected, considering that Gibbs wasn't driving. Kate and Tony were in a car behind the one with Gibbs and the doctor. They were driven by other agents.

Once they had reached the building, the cars went around the back to somewhere where they could get out of the car and get into NCIS safely. It was almost 8am so the traffic had just started to pass.

Gibbs and Dr. Leery had gotten there first and he had ushered her inside while he waited downstairs for his own agents to come.

Kate was fighting to keep her eyes open as they neared NCIS finally. She was still weak from the previous day's events, and the anaesthetic hadn't fully worn off. Also, the loss of blood made her slightly light-headed, but it wasn't too much to be concerned off.

The SUV that they were in pulled up right where Gibbs' had 5 minutes previously. There had been no hitches in the plan at all, but that didn't give anyone any feelings of safety. The two agents stepped out of the car slowly, and made their way into the building to be confronted by their own boss.

'The whole building is being guarded, and that's just for precaution. The entire base is under security checks. No one gets in or out without _me_ knowing. We'll get him this time.' He assured them as he leaded the other two into the elevator and down into Abby's lab first.

'Why are we going to Abby's?' Tony asked. He was leaning against the side of the metal box, exhausted by the sleepless night and the busy previous day. But he wouldn't sleep until he had gotten Ari. He had promised himself that. Even just thinking about the guy boiled his blood. Tony laid a hand on Kate's lower back for his own comfort to know that she was still there with him.

'You'll see.' Was all the reply that he got.

As soon as they stepped off of the elevator, they all realised that the music was no longer on. Instead, all that could be heard was Abby talking at the speed of lightening to whoever she was with probably McGee. But that stopped when she heard the doors slid open.

'Kate!' she yelled mid-sentence. The Goth ran up to her best friend and pulled her into a tight hug while talking non-stop. 'I'm _so_ glad you're alright! I wanted to come to se you but Gibbs wouldn't let me out of here and I couldn't. You have no idea how annoying and hard it has been being here and not knowing how you were. But I knew you would be fine.'

'Thanks, Abby.' Kate replied after a pause. 'Abby.' She gasped out. 'You wanna let go?'

'Oh! I'm so sorry!' she apologised when she backed off a bit, but kept her arm linked with Kate's good arm. Her right arm was bandaged and plastered and in a sling to make sure she didn't move her shoulder until she was allowed to.

'Ok, since everyone's here-' Gibbs began.

'Ducky and Palmer aren't, boss.' Tony informed him.

'Well, that's because I've already spoken to them.' He sighed as Tony inched away from his pissed off boss. 'As I was saying, since we are all here, I thought it would be easier to tell you what's gonna happen all at the same time. First of all, no-one, and I mean _no-one_, is to leave this building. The only time that you can is when _I_ say you can. And I doubt that I will do so for a long time. Secondly, we have just one priority right now and you all know what that is. And finally, the only reason why you are here, Kate, is because you are _safe_ here. Other than that, you are to rest and recuperate. Do you all understand?' he asked the last four words slowly and looked at all 5 of them; the team and Dr. Leery.

Gibbs received a muddle of answers, but he knew they were all confirmative.

'Good.' He regained himself and put himself back into working mode. 'What did you get from the DNA matches, Abby?'

'The finger that Ari had dropped off _was_ the Petty Officer's, and by the looks of it, it was cut with a saw. Ducky said it wasn't a surgical saw either.' She confirmed, dragging Kate with her to her computer.

'Ouch! So what? He just cut it off cos Ari said so?' Tony asked.

'I dunno. You'll havta asked Ducky on that.' She replied.

'We can do one better. Let's go and ask Davidson himself!' Gibbs sneered. 'DiNozzo, McGee, you're with me. You three can stay down here. Abs, I want the ballistics on the bullet I gave you in an hour!' He instructed at the guys left the girls in the lab.

'That was interesting.' Dr. Sydney Leery said for the first time. The other two looked at her.

'He's always like that. I thought you'd be used to it by now.' Abby said innocently as Kate rolled her eyes at the attempt.

'Why would that be?' The redhead doctor asked.

'Just, you know, seeing as for the last two months…' she trailed off, pretending to be interested in her computer.

'For the last two months… what?' Sydney prompted just as Kate yawned and steadied herself against the work top.

'Maybe you should go to sleep, Kate. Gibbs said that that's why you're here.' Abby said, more or less pushing her into her little office area.

Kate didn't have the energy nor the time to argue with her. She was surprised to see that Abby's futon was set out already for her, and it seemed even more comfy than ever before.

'I knew that you would be tired, so I thought I would give you something comfy to sleep on, seeing as you can only sleep on your side.' Abby explained as if she read her mind.

'Thank, Abs.' Kate replied as she walked over to the futon and sat on it, glad to give her legs some rest.

'You're welcome. Anyways, Tony would kill me if I don't look after you when he can't!' she winked before leaving her alone in the room.

Kate sat in the room just staring around at the walls for a moment. She suddenly realised how alone she was in that room and how grateful she was with the lack of windows. It was then that she understood why Gibbs had taken them down to the lab. Rolling her eyes, she laid down on the futon, hoping to sleep for a while.

--

Gibbs sighed as he exited the interrogation room. The former Petty Officer, as it was now, was being very uncooperative. Even after being threatened and called many foul things by Gibbs, he still didn't choose to help.

_He must be helping Ari_ Gibbs decided. He didn't really care on why he had cut his finger off or why he and the other guy had taken them hostage. Rather, he just wanted information on Ari that could only be gotten through his associates. Unfortunately, it seemed as if Mossad agents really were totally loyal.

Upon entering the observation room, Gibbs saw a very agitated Tony and an almost annoyed McGee. Before he had bought Kate and Tony from the hospital, he had asked McGee to find the pictures that he had taken of the photos that they had found in the closet.

'McGee. Go see if you can get anything from Davidson's phone log. And try to find out the other guy's name please!' he ordered. McGee left, knowing exactly why.

'Now what, Boss?' Tony asked him. Gibbs made a sign for him to follow as he left the room and headed up to MTAC.

MTAC wasn't as empty as it usually was, but it wasn't that crowded either. Tony didn't recognise anyone there.

'Do you remember when we found those bodies in that apartment, DiNozzo?' Gibbs asked him. Tony cocked an eyebrow.

'Uh… yeah, Boss. It isn't hard to forget it.' He replied. Gibbs nodded tightly and paid more fake attention to the screen before him so that he didn't have to look at his agent.

'In the back room, there was a closet which had photos pinned at the back of. It was easy to find and I assume that Ari wanted me to find it.' Gibbs explained. Tony stood listening, not sure if he should say anything or not.

'What were the pictures of?' he finally asked.

'I got McGee to bag and tag them, but before he could, the place was blown up and burnt down. Luckily, he managed to get some snaps of them.' Gibbs said. He moved to one of the desks and picked up a file that he had given the Director earlier when he was asked to show him all of the evidence. 'These are what McGee got.'

Tony took the file off of his Boss and opened it like it was any other folder with evidence pictures in it. However, once he saw the contents, he was shocked beyond words. It was photos within photos, and that gave it an eerie aura about it. But what shocked him the most was the contents of the photos. The first person that stood out to him wasn't himself, but it was who he was with. Kate. There weren't any dates on the real photos, but he could guess when half of the ones with them in it were taken.

'He was _stalking_ us?' Tony finally chocked out. When he said the word, he realised how much it meant, and his anger rose.

'It looks like it.' Gibbs simply said, sipping his coffee that Tony hadn't noticed before.

'Why?'

'I dunno, DiNozzo. It's not like Ari is a stable person.' He retorted.

'Is this why you put me on protection detail for Kate?' Tony asked his boss, putting two and two together.

'Part of the reason.'

'You knew Ari was after her, and you, yet you still took us out there?' Tony accused.

'It's not like I could've stopped her anyway, DiNozzo. That's why I put her under _your_ protection.' Gibbs defended himself.

'I could've convinced her.' Tony replied. It was only then that he realised that he was arguing with his boss. It would've been funny if it hadn't been so serious.

'Maybe so. But if Ari wanted to do this, then he would've gotten to Kate while she was here instead of there.' He countered. Tony had to agree, knowing that Ari usually got what he wanted.

'Is that why Dr. Leery's here too?'

'He'll go after whoever was in those pictures, and the rest of the team.' Gibbs stated.

'Why? I mean, why not just go after you personally?' Tony asked.

'Cos it'll have more effect on me this way.' He murmured angrily, but Tony could still hear it.

'So what now?' he repeated his question from earlier.

'Now we track down the son of a bitch.' Gibbs smirked, taking the file out of Tony's hands and led them both back to their bullpen.

--

Several hours later, Tony and McGee were still at their desks looking for information on Ari. As neither of them could go out, this was their only source of information. There were FBI agents around the building too, and the frequent passing of people was getting on Tony's nerves.

'This… is … just _useless!_' he snapped, banging the desk with his hand.

'What else do you propose we do then, DiNozzo?' Gibbs asked him as he came from the director's office with the doctor with him.

'I dunno.' He murmured. 'Did Abby get anything on the bullet?' he asked.

'Go check.' He instructed. Tony jumped up and went, glad to have a reason to go down.

The elevator took it's time to go down, but when he got off, he wasn't surprised to hear the music low.

'Hey Abs! Do you have anything yet?' he asked, practically begging.

'Almost there. It's just running through the programme.' She informed him in a chirpy voice.

'Great. At last; something to go with!' he exclaimed. Abby laughed at his enthusiasm.

'I don't think you've ever been this excited about my work before, Tony.' She stated. Tony smiled at her.

'That's cos your work hasn't this important before.' He quipped before ducking away when she went to hit him. He chuckled as she scowled and walked over to the glass doors which would lead him into Abby's lab.

'She's been asleep since she got here.' Abby informed him. He smiled softly.

'That's what you think.' He replied cryptically before getting closer to the doors to make then open.

'What?' Abby shouted, making her way closer, but Tony managed to get to her close to her and turned her around and pushed her to her computer.

'You work.' He ordered before going into the other room. Abby shook her head and allowed him to have some time with his girlfriend.

Tony had seen Kate sleep enough times to know when she was pretending. She did it almost every morning when she didn't want t get up, which was often.

'I know you're awake.' He whispered as he sat down on the futon where she wasn't lying on, back against the wall. Kate slowly opened her eyes to see him looking at her. Sighing, she sat up too, rotating her left shoulder to get rid of the kink after lying on it for the past 3 hours.

'I hate it when you do that.' She told him, sitting right next to him. Tony chuckled.

'Nah you don't.' they sat in silence for a moment. 'Did you get any sleep?

'Yeah, for about a couple of hours. I couldn't be asked to get up so I thought I'd stay here. It's not like I could do anything else anyways.' Kate claimed. Tony laid a kiss on her temple before drawing his legs up and hanging his arms off of them.

'You should be resting anyways. Let us do the rest. Then we can go home.' He sighed at the end. He never thought he'd be gladder to go home.

'Yeah, home.' Kate snorted.

'You'll be better soon.' Tony reassured her, knowing that she didn't want to go back to the hospital.

'Doesn't help though. I'll need rehabilitation to get the movement back, and God knows how long that will take. Until then, I won't be able to do _any_ fieldwork, and I doubt that Gibbs will let me come into work for a _long_ time.' She ranted. 'And like that's not bad enough, I'll have a nasty scar on my shoulder, and I'll have to learn how to be left handed for the next couple of months!'

When she had finished, Tony suppressed his smile, knowing that it would just piss her off more.

'Don't worry about all that. It won't take as long as you think it will. Gibbs'll let you back when you want to come, of course, _after_ you have recovered. And personally,' Tony dropped his voice to make it more personal, 'I find scars quite sexy.' He bit her lobe for fun as she squirmed away from him.

'Well, you would.' She replied snappily. Tony raised his eyebrows. 'Never mind. I'm just cranky.' Tony chuckled and threaded his hand with her free one, intertwining their fingers.

'You know what we need?' he asked.

'What?' Kate replied, laying her head on his shoulder.

'A vacation. We totally deserve one too, don't ya think?'

'Hell, yeah.' Kate laughed. She had the feeling that her medication was wearing off as she felt pain in her shoulder, but she didn't want to move from her safe and comfy position.

'When this is all over… we'll get away. Somewhere far and remote.' Tony dreamt up, his eyes narrowing concentration.

'Somewhere where _no-one_, including Abby, can find us. And it has to be hot. And on a beach.' Kate added.

'Naturally.' Tony said as if it was an obvious fact that it had to be a beach. Kate laughed as she held tight onto his hand.

'Soon, right?' she asked him.

'We'd go right now if it were up to me.' He murmured back, giving her a kiss on the head before getting to stand up.

'Where you going?' Kate asked, disappointed.

'Funny as it might sound, I have to work, Katie.' He told her in a voice reserved for children. Kate rolled her eyes.

'I'm sure you do.'

'Hey!' he pouted, pretending to be offended. 'That's quite mean you know.'

'Doesn't mean it's not true.'

'Not funny.' He said as she stifled a yawn. 'Ok. You need to go to sleep and I need to work. I'll come back later to see you.' They shared a kiss before he got up and went to Abby's lab.

'Is she still awake?' Abby asked straight away.

'Nah, she was tired so I told her to go to sleep.' Tony smirked as Abby glared at him. 'What?'

'She's my best mate you know.' She told him.

'Yeah, I know.' Tony paused as Abby glared at him continually, making him feel small. 'Uh… did you get anything from the bullet?'

'Yes I did.' She said shortly. When she didn't carry on, Tony gave her a sign to prompt her. 'Here.' She handed him a file with the results in. Abby used force when she placed it in his hands, making a loud slapping sound.

'Ow!' he exclaimed as Abby huffed. 'If you wanna talk to her, just go and do it now. Don't take it out on me!'

'Well, I' not gonna take it out on Kate! She's injured. So you're the only one here that I can take it out on!' Abby fumed.

'Well, then. I'll be going now before Gibbs kills me.' He turned to leave. 'Or you.' He mumbled under his breath.

'I heard that!' she yelled after him.

Tony smirked as he opened the file, waiting for the elevator. He had never noticed before how long it took for the elevator to come. Usually because he would always come down there with Kate, so they would bicker or something while they waited.

However, before the elevator had the chance to come, something happened that Tony had been dreading. It was the same noise that he had heard the day before. It was almost identical.

Except for the scream. This time it wasn't Kate that screamed. It was Abby who screamed as the glass shattered in the other room as bullets were heard once again.

**Wow! That went longer than I expected it to go!**

**How did you like it? Or didn't you like it at all? I thought I'd add some TATE fluff like always.**

**PLEASE R&R! Please?**

**Tiana xXx**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey!!**

**Ok – so I dunno how long this chapter will be… but I know what I want in it so it may be VERY long or VERY short!**

**Please R&R! **

**Tiana xXx**

He had pulled out his own gun without thinking and entered Abby's lab.

'Abby!' Tony yelled, seeing the Goth was still standing. 'Get down!' But Abby was in shock, so Tony had to take it all into his own hands. Approaching her, he pulled her down with him, backing up into the doors that he had just come through.

'Tony!' she finally gasped. 'What just happened?'

'Well, it sounded like someone shot through your windows!' he replied, keeping an eye on the windows to the side of them, making sure that they were out of the way of any possible shots.

'Oh God. _Oh God!_ Why?' Abby started to ask him. Tony realised that he had never seen Abby scared or panicked before. Until now, although she was trying hard to hide it.

_Like Kate would_ he thought, but that thought led to another one. _Kate! Where is she?!_

'I dunno, Abby. Just stay here, and don't move.' He instructed, his voice low.

'Wait!' she whispered harshly. 'Where are you going?' she asked, holding onto his leg tightly.

'Kate.' Was all that he said and Abby understood immediately.

--

She hadn't been asleep, no matter how tired she was. It was the pain in her shoulder that kept her wake. But it also reminded her that she was alive, so she left it for a while.

_God! When did I turn into Abby?_ She thought, remembering about the pain remark she had made.

Kate hadn't known how long it had been since Tony had left, but it hadn't seemed long. She was drifting into a day dreaming state of the vacation she had described when a smashing sound, so clear and precise to the day before, had occurred.

In an instance, she had sat up straight. She wasn't sure if the sound was real, or if her mind was playing tricks on her. It was only when she heard Tony's voice yelling for Abby that she knew it was real.

Being a former Secret Service Agent had its perks, and its trainings was one of the best, but there was nothing about it that had prepared her for this. Usually, she was on guard and ready, but right now, she wasn't. It was in her teaching that if she were in any danger that she should use her gun or any weapon that she could reach. But no one had ever taught her what to do if she couldn't use her firing arm, and was still under anaesthesia and on medication.

She pushed herself up and stood up. Fortunately for her, Gibbs had thought about the risks, and so had Tony too probably, and she had a gun in the bag by her side. Kate had no reason for looking in there, but she couldn't see anything else that she could possibly use for protection in Abby's office.

Gently, she crept over to the doors that separated her from the other two. She held her gun with her left hand, gripping it tightly, hoping that she wouldn't have to use it.

--

Tony was still on the floor with Abby, about to get up, when anther shot tore through the lab. This had caused Abby to push herself away from the centre of the room and further into Tony. He gently pulled her into a protective embrace, but still had his gun out and ready.

It was then that he saw Kate through the doors. She had a gun in her hand, and she seemed confidant like always.

_Cos that's my Kate_ he thought to himself, sighing.

Kate looked at Abby and saw that she was scared. She gestured to her and Tony if they were hurt, and both shook their heads, asking her the same thing. She shook her head too.

Slowly, she stepped through the glass doors and into the main lab area. Ducking down a bit so that she wasn't in view fully from the window, she made her way over to where Tony and Abby were. But on her way, she took a peak out of the window. Hoping to find something to shoot at, she was disappointed that there was nothing there.

'What happened?' Kate asked as she squatted down next to them. Her right arm was in an awkward position and it nudged her shoulder and pulled on her stitches, but she didn't care. She was angry as hell.

'Someone started to shoot through my lab!' Abby replied, angry too.

'I don't think it was just 'anyone'.' Tony snapped. He let go of Abby and made to get up.

'Hey! Where're you going?' both Kate and Abby asked simultaneously.

'I'm just gonna make sure. Stay here both of you.' He said, looking sternly at Kate. They both nodded, though reluctantly, while he snuck over to the windows so that he could peer outside. As he did so, someone came rushing downstairs, and through the double doors behind the girls.

'What happened?' Gibbs asked, his gun out and ready when he saw Kate and Abby on the floor, safe, and Tony checking out the windows.

'Someone shot at Abby.' Kate reported, finally getting up. Abby joined her too when Gibbs helped her up.

'Ok. You two go up to the bullpen and tell McGee to get down here.' The boss told them.

'But Gibbs, the evidence!' Abby complained. Gibbs looked at her like she was crazy.

'Don't worry about the evidence, Abby. Just be glad you're ok. We'll sort this out and then you can come back down here.' He informed her, gesturing to them to get out of there.

Before she left, Kate shared a look with Tony that was less than enthusiastic and left him worried.

--

The team of three had processed Abby's lab in 2 hours, and Gibbs had ordered for someone to fit bullet proof glass for Abby's reassurance. When they went up to the bullpen, with the evidence in hand seeing at the lab was the crime scene at that moment, no one was surprised to see everyone on edge after the attack.

'McGee, pull up _all _of the surveillance camera's that you can find that could have captures the vehicle that the shots came from. Abby, help him!' Gibbs ordered before leaving to go up to MTAC presumably. Tony stood leaning at his desk, confused for why Gibbs hadn't given him anything to do. 'DiNozzo! Get to work!' Gibbs added as he climbed the stairs.

Tony pulled a face when his boss yelled at him and immediately sat down behind his computer, pulling up whatever he had been doing last time he was there.

About 5 minutes later, he was distracted once again by Kate sitting opposite him at her own desk. She had gone down to autopsy to see Dr. Leery and Ducky for some medicine for her shoulder. There was no way of telling whether her stitches had been pulled or not due to the cast, but the doctors had reassured them that she would be fine for the time being.

Now, Kate sat, lost in thought. She sat like that for another 10 minutes before she abruptly stood up and walked briskly over to the stairwell. The heads of the other three all snapped up as she left. Almost immediately, Tony shot up and rounded his desk to follow her.

He tried to catch up with her, but she was walking quite fast. When he finally reached the stairwell, he was glad to see that she was just sitting on the stairs, still thinking. Silently, Tony walked up to her and just sat next to her. He had learnt from Gibbs that sometimes not saying anything was the best thing to do.

'None of this would be happening if I had knifed him.' Kate broke the silence with. 'I should've stabbed him. In autopsy.' Her voice was quavering and Tony could tell that the events were now catching up with her. 'If I had stabbed him…' she shook her head as she left the sentence up in the air.

'You can't blame yourself for this Kate. It's _not_ your fault.' Tony reassures her, not being able to keep quite any longer while knowing what torment was going around in his girlfriend's head.

'I had a chance. Right then. It's been the only clear chance so far to get him, and I let him get away. All because of _his eyes_.' She spat out the last words with such hatred that it contradicted with what she had told Gibbs when he had asked her why she hadn't shot him.

'You had you're reasons, Kate. Ari is deranged. You can't blame yourself for everything he is doing.' Tony repeated, wanting to get through to her.

'But if I had killed him then… if I had taken the chance, none of this would be happening. I wouldn't be in a cast, Abby wouldn't have been shot at, the team wouldn't be in danger. Gerald would still be a pathologist and Dr. Leery would be at the hospital doing her rounds! But I didn't take the chance and-' Kate had made it through her words without crying, but it was the ending, the sign of weakness of her not taking the chance, that released her emotions.

Tony saw the tears fall slowly and steadily, sliding down her cheeks as she used her hand to brush them away in anger. He contemplated on whether he should go with his instincts and just wrap an arm around her shoulder and comfort her, or whether he should let her get it all out. In the end, the loving side of him took over and he couldn't stand her crying anymore.

Laying a hand on her back, seeing as an arm around her shoulder would've been painful, he let her cry into his shoulder while he just held her, allowing her to calm down before he spoke.

'You don't know what would've happened if you had tried to knife him, Kate. You told me he had a vest on.' He felt her grip tighter onto his arm and he placed a kiss onto her head, realising that she was no longer crying, and her breathing was steadier. 'If you had knifed him, he could have attacked back. And no matter what has happen since that day, losing you would _never_ have made it justifiable.' Tony shuddered internally thinking about how close he had become to losing the woman in his arms right then so many times due to this single one terrorist.

'Gibbs was right. And so were you.' Kate told him. 'Eye's can lie. I should've known that.'.

'You're a profiler. You stuck by what you had been taught. Gibbs isn't always right, you know. He's been divorced three times. I think that goes to show that he can't _really_ read people well, you know?' Kate let out a small laugh and Tony smiled glad to have made her laugh. 'And since when do you ever admit that I'm right?'

'You were right. Maybe it was Stockholm syndrome. Maybe I did sympathise with him. I dunno, Tony.' She shook her head. 'I dunno why I didn't kill him then. I said its cos of his eyes, but I can't even remember them anymore.' A couple more tears slipped down her eyes, but this time she didn't bother to wipe them away.

Tony tightened his grip on her. They say silently as she let her tears subside.

Kate sat with her head resting on Tony's shoulder for a while, just cherishing a stolen moment with him.

'We should go, Kate. It's not that safe here, sweetie.' Tony told her, seeing a window on the lower level. Ok, so it wasn't in their view, but it still unnerved him.

'As long as you're here, I know I'm safe, Tony. I know you'll protect me and have my six, though I don't need it.' She joked, lightening the mo0d. Tony smiled and dropped a final kiss on her head before getting up.

'We still have to go. Gibbs'll kill us, remember?' he reminded her of his orders.

'Yeah, yeah.' She took a deep breath and stood up slowly, feeling tired still. And with the crying, she must look like hell. 'I need to go to the bathroom first.'

'You look fine.' Tony read her mind. Kate smiled.

'Now I know you're lying.' She laughed as she walked out of the door and back into the main working area with Tony following her.

'I'm not lying.' He told her, placing a hand on the small of her back as she made her way to the head.

'You know you can't come in here, right?' Kate turned to tell him. Tony raised an eyebrow.

'Gibbs put me on your protection. Thus, I go where you go.' He nodded towards the bathroom door. 'There too.'

'This is just wrong.' She murmured as she opened the door to see if anyone was in there. Glad that it was empty; she allowed him to come in and then locked the main door so that no one else would enter.

'Just be glad _that_ week has gone.' He said sincerely as Kate glared at him and groaned.

'This is why we need another female on the team.'

'We have Abby.' He informed her with a smile.

'She's not really up for the protection detail duties, is she now?' Kate asked as she turned on the tap and look into the mirror. Tony came and stood beside her, leaning against the counter with his back to the mirror.

'Well, you never know with Abby.' Tony shrugged. Kate shook her head as she splashed some water on her face, trying to get rid of any evidence that showed that she had been crying. But it was rather hard with one hand.

Tony saw her struggling, but didn't say anything, knowing how Kate didn't like to look weak. Instead, he kept his eyes focused on the opposite wall. He fought with himself on whether he should tell her about the pictures that Gibbs had found in the apartment. In the silence, Kate saw that Tony was struggling with something.

'What is it?' she asked him as she went to dry her face, having enough with the attempts to wash her face. He shook his head but she kept on looking at him, trying to get him to open up.

'You know that I love you, right?' Tony finally said. Kate looked at him confused with his words, but then smirked, falling into their usual banter.

'So I'm not another notch on your bedpost?' She asked in faux awe.

'Well, am I a line in your song?' he smiled as Kate hit his arm.

'That's not funny.' She scowled as he laughed harder.

'At least you have decent music taste.' Tony commented as Kate shoved him into the wall.

'I'll take that as a complement.' Kate replied as she checked her final reflection.

'You should.' He turned to face her once again. 'And you still look fine.' He saw the smile tugging at her lips as she still faced the mirror. Tony approached her from the side and gave her a kiss on her temple before lowering down to her lips.

'I love you.' Kate told him after they broke apart, slightly out of breath, like always.

'I know.' Tony replied cheekily as she smiled and left the bathroom to go back to the bullpen.

--

It had taken more than a bit of reassurance to get Abby back into her lab. Although Gibbs explained to her that there was now bullet proof glass fitted, she still didn't feel safe to go down.

'What else can I do, Abby?' Gibbs asked her softly as they talked at his desk. She sat in his chair while he kneeled in front of her as if she was 7 years old. Abby shrugged in reply. 'Tell what you want and I'll fix it for you.'

'I want a gun.' She said after a moment's thought. Gibbs shook his head.

'I can't do that, Abby. It's more dangerous to you than anyone else.' He told her.

'I don't wanna be down there with no weapons, Gibbs.' She said, looking at the ground. Gibbs sighed and thought about what to do.

'How about I send Tony down with you then?' he compromised. Abby seemed to think about it.

'Can I have McGee instead?' she asked timidly. Gibbs raised an eyebrow in question. 'He can help me with the work too.' She explained. The Boss nodded and stood up.

'McGee! Take Abby down to her lab and stay with her until I say so.' He ordered. The Probie nodded and did as he said; silently glad that he could be with Abby. When he had heard of what had happened, he was really worried for her. Although it was Abby who had told him the events, and he knew that she was alright, he was still scared for her as she seemed so shaken up about it. It was then that he realised how much he loved her, and why Gibbs' Rule 12 was actually quite important.

--

Tony was running only on pure adrenaline. He hadn't slept for about 48 hours and he didn't really like coffee, although right then, he thought that the pressure of the case might actually get him started on it.

He sat at his desk, unable to get any further with anything else that he had found.

_There had to be something that we have missed_ he told himself. There was no one else in the bullpen with him. Gibbs was back in MTAC, Dr. Leery spent her time with Ducky and Kate had been ordered to go back down to the lab to rest. She hadn't even bothered to argue as she was too tired to.

Gibbs had often said that his Senior Field Agent did his best work without an audience, but right then he couldn't even look at the screen without wanting to bang his head against the desk. Or better yet, shoot the monitor. Or himself.

Still staring at the PC screen, he heard Gibbs running down the stairs behind him. It was actually quite scary how Tony knew that it was his boss and not anyone else. Turning to face him, Tony was perplexed to why the ex-marine had two cell phones on him one was held to his ear, while the other was in his hand open. He recognised that one as Gibbs own one.

_So whose is the other one?_ Tony's trail of thought was broke by Gibbs' yell.

'DiNozzo! C'mon!' Tony jumped up and walked with Gibbs into the elevator as he hung up.

'Who was that?' he asked.

'Abby.' Was all that Gibbs said as they approached the lower floor for the lab. Getting off of the elevator, Tony was still confused to why his boss had been phoning Abby when he could just go down there, and why his own cell was still open in his hand.

'I've almost got it, Gibbs.' Abby announced as the doors slid open.

'Got what?' Tony asked. Abby and McGee were typing furiously at their computer, her arms around him so that they could both do it at once.

'A track on Ari's call.' Gibbs answered. Tony turned around to face him, his eyebrows up at it's highest peak.

'_That's_ Ari?' Tony asked, pointing to the open cell that was now on the counter.

'It was!' Gibbs replied gruffly. 'He left, but didn't hang up.'

'I don't think he did it by accident, Boss.'

'Really, DiNozzo? I would never have guessed!' Gibbs' voice was dripping with so much sarcasm that Tony took a step back.

'Sorry Boss. But why would he want us to find him?' Tony asked.

'I dunno. But if we have any lead, I'll take it.' Gibbs told him as Tony nodded.

'Got it!' Abby and McGee finally yelled. The other two looked at them expectantly while Abby pulled the information up on the plasma. Tony and Gibbs rounded around them to get closer to the map. After looking at it for a second, they both stood bit shocked.

'Uh… boss? Isn't that like your…?' Tony trailed off, not sure whether he wanted to be right or wrong.

'Yeah, it is.' He sighed and turned to Abby and McGee. 'Keep a track on it and send it to DiNozzo's PDA. McGee, you're with us.' He instructed, striding out of the lab, leaving two very confused computer geeks. 'Now!'

Tony and McGee left the lab, but not before Tony gave Abby a look that she knew well.

'I'll make sure she stay's here.' She said as they left and then turned to look at the map once more. 'Oh my God.' She exclaimed as she finally figured out where she had tracked Ari to. It was Gibbs' block.

--

Gibbs, Tony and McGee were in one car. It was the first car that had left NCIS since that morning. Being as stubborn as he was, Gibbs hadn't told anyone that they had tracked Ari, nor that they were going after him. It was his fight against him, and he wasn't going to get anyone else involved.

Knowing that when they got to the house where Ari's cell was traced to he would have to convince both DiNozzo and McGee to let him go in on his own, he was happy that he had bought them along for his back up.

Once they were about a minute away from his block, Gibbs told McGee to call the director and ask for some more backup. Gibbs knew that he would probably get in trouble for leaving NCIS without any backup except for two agents, but he didn't worry about it.

Gibbs parked the car around the corner and walked up to the detached, isolated house that Tony's PDA showed as the building with the cell phone in it. All three of them knew that it was a trap. And they all knew that there was a possibility that there was either no one in there, just Ari, or someone else, or a whole group of people. But they had made it that far, and they weren't going to back down right then.

'We'll take the perimeter first.' Gibbs told his agents. 'You two go around the back, and I'll take the front.'

'Shouldn't we wait for backup, boss?' Tony asked while Gibbs shook his head.

'We don't have time.'

'What if he's got his whole team in there?' Tony countered.

'That's not Ari's style. If he's anywhere, he'll be there by himself. I know.' Gibbs replied confidently. Both Tony and McGee nodded at him, trusting their Boss as they had always done.

Slowly, the two of them crept around to the back of the house, while Gibbs went the other way. By the time they met up, all three were sure that there was nothing on the outside.

'Shall we enter?' McGee spoke for the first time. Gibbs thought about it. He realised that if they waited any longer, more agents may pull up, probably in sirens, which would alert Ari.

Ari was the one that led him to him. So it should be him that found him. For that reason Gibbs nodded.

'We go in.' Gibbs instructed. 'But if we can, we get him out alive. Got it?' he looked pointedly at Tony who reluctantly nodded once. 'C'mon then.'

Gibbs led the way into the house. It was bigger inside than it seemed from the outside. As Tony needed both his hands on his gun, his PDA was out of sight, so they had to assume that he was still in there.

Signalling to the other two to go upstairs, Gibbs took the ground floor. He entered each room slowly and silently. The element of surprise was vital when they dealt with Ari, especially when he was so close and knew they were coming.

Getting through all six of the downstairs rooms, Gibbs looked around anxiously. It was almost silent.

_Almost_ he thought. But there was a sound. It was low and wouldn't been able to be heard if he hadn't concentrated on it. Following the sound with his gun out, Gibbs came upon a door in one of the rooms. He carefully turned the handle to push the door open.

There were stairs behind the door. Stairs that down.

_Cellar _he realised. Finally, he recognised the sound too. _Tumble dryer_…

Just like every other old cellars, the staircase creaked as he descended it. Eyes skimming over everything that he could see, Gibbs was almost disappointed that he didn't see Ari. But he still went to explore the room.

There was almost no light in there whatsoever, apart from what was passing through from upstairs. He neared the tumble dryer, switching it off so that he could open it. Unlocking the lock, he opened the door to it, unsure with what was inside. It was only when he leant in deeper that he realised that it was body.

From the shadows behind him, there was a rustle that caught Gibbs' attention. However, he was too slow with moving out of the way as a person came flying towards him. The weight of the body caused him to bang against the dryer, his hand squashed so much that he was forced to drop the gun unless if he wanted to shoot himself somewhere very painful.

'Agent Gibbs. It's been a long time.' Ari taunted, placing his own gun to his head before lowering it to his neck. 'This is how you like to hold your gun on people, no?' he laughed.

--

Tony had taken the second floor of the house as McGee took the first. For that reason, it was he who could hear the struggle downstairs, and it was he who went to Gibbs' help.

Following the sounds like Gibbs had, McGee found himself at an open door. He could hear the struggling and the voices of two people.

_Gibbs and Ari_ McGee concluded to. He stood at the door for a moment so that he could get his breathing sorted, and to get a hold of the situation. It was only when he realised that Ari had an upper hand on his boss that McGee went down the stairs too.

Ari stood with his gun to Gibbs' neck. The two of them were so close, that it was almost frightening. McGee knew that he couldn't shoot Ari without hitting Gibbs. Or so that's what he thought. If it were Tony or Kate in his place, then he was sure that they probably could.

During his thinking, he hadn't realised that Ari had shut up and had realised that the agent was there, with a gun pointing at him.

'You brought backup?' Ari almost laughed at Gibbs. 'Now, now. That doesn't sound like the heroic Leroy Jethro Gibbs that I know.'

'Drop the weapon, Ari.' McGee said in his most confident voice. It was the tone that he used on Tony when he was picking on him and Kate wouldn't back him up.

'Why?'

The question brought McGee to a stop. Why should he drop his weapon? McGee had no idea. But Gibbs took over for him.

'This is between you and me. Let's do this by ourselves.' He said, but Ari shook his head and tsked.

'No, no, no. This _was_ between you and me. But you didn't come alone, unlike me.' Ari sounded like an upset parent.

'McGee, leave.' Gibbs ordered. Before McGee had time to react, Ari spoke.

'No, don't leave. There's no point to this.' He turned to McGee. 'Let _me_ leave.'

'What?' Gibbs asked, astonished.

'There's no point to this.' Ari shook his head. 'If I killed you, he'll kill me. But if he kills me first, I'll kill you with my last breath. No winner. What's the point?'

Gibbs couldn't believe what he was hearing. He wasn't a selfish man. If it meant killing Ari then he would sacrifice himself. But it wasn't just about him anymore. It was about McGee too. And then probably Tony. So Gibbs did one thing that he knew he would always regret.

'McGee. Let him leave.' He instructed.

--

Tony had heard McGee's footsteps descend down a level. Not knowing why he would do such a thing, Tony went down to the Probie's level, and then once again to the ground floor. Once there, he could here voices. And like the other two, he followed the noise to an open door.

Standing on guard with his gun pointed out, he stayed upstairs when he heard Ari's voice. It was a voice that he would always remember and hate. He heard Ari requesting to leave, and when Gibbs told McGee to let him leave, Tony was in shock. But he quickly got over it and moved into the next room.

The footsteps of someone coming closer to him got the adrenaline pumping though Tony's body. The heavy footsteps weren't coming towards him, exactly, but rather up to the same floor that he was on. Once Ari had entered the room that Tony had just been in, he waited to see where he would go next.

Ari had hesitated a bit before turning right, not left to where Tony was. This left Tony with two choices. Whether to go and get him, or to leave him. In all honesty, there was no doubt in his mind to what he should do.

Tony went to the room on his left, so that he could go around the whole bottom floor and wait in the room that Ari would eventually get to.

He hid in the shadows, hoping that Ari didn't have Gibbs like senses, or Kate like for that matter, and sense that he was there. He steadied his breathing so that he could concentrate on the sound of the approaching footsteps.

When Ari stepped through the doorway into the room where Tony was, he held his breath altogether. From the shadows, Tony quickly studied the terrorist. He noticed that he didn't have a gun in his hands; although there was no doubt that he had one.

Ari was in the middle of the room when Tony finally stepped out of the shadows.

'Stop or I will shoot.' Tony said coldly. Personally, he hoped that he wouldn't stop, just for an excuse to shoot him. Unfortunately, he did stop.

'Special Agent DiNozzo.' Ari laughed. 'I should've known that you would've came along.' He turned to face the NCIS Agent who had his gun trained at his heart.

'You have two options. Give yourself up, or leave in a body bag.' Tony continued. Once again he hoped that he wouldn't give himself up. Ari looked at him funnily before raising his hands in a surrendering style.

'How is my dear Caitlin? Tell her I'm sorry for having to hurt her. But in my defence, it could've been worse.' He laughed in a way that made Tony creep out, although he was sure that it was the mention of his girlfriend that did that too.

Tony didn't reply, not trusting himself to do so. But as he stood with his gun on Ari, he began to wonder what he was to do now. He couldn't trust Ari to take his gun off of him and handcuff him. Nor to let him handcuff himself. And there was no one else there right then.

_Where are Gibbs and McGee?_ He speculated. The silence between stretched, although Tony was sure that less than a minute had passed.

In slow, miniscule movements, Ari was lowering his arms. It was ever so slightly, that he knew that Tony couldn't tell. His arms were lowered quite a bit when he took a chance.

When Tony saw Ari's arm move down, he didn't think about any other reason for why he would do that apart for wanting to get his gun. And because of that, Tony got his wish. He pulled the trigger of his gun just before Ari got to his own down, and the bullet hit his chest. But that wasn't enough to stop Ari, Tony knew that.

So it was for that reason that he shot him 3 more times. Twice in the shoulder, and once more in the chest. This time, Ari couldn't reach his gun. He fell. Hard.

But Tony still had his gun trained on him, not wanting to take any chance. He neared to the fallen terrorist, and stood next to him where he laid. There was blood coming out of the side of his mouth and he struggled to talk. But Tony still kept his gun pointed at him.

It was the first time that Tony had so much emotion behind a shooting, but he didn't care. It had felt good to shoot him. To take his life away. And if he had to, he would do it a million times over.

**WHEW!**

**Ok – so that is the longest chapter that I have EVER written EVER! It took me about 8 hours I think… so I DO hope that you guys like it.**

**Please can you R&R? Lemme know how it was!**

**Btw – the song reference was for Tans and Angel! I hope you actually understand it! Did anyone else?**

**Tiana xXx**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey!**

**Sorry for the long wait but I has exams to do and then more work and then some course and now I'm FINALLY home for a week and I'll update as soon as I can!**

**Please R&R! I love them!**

**Tiana xXx**

Tony sat outside the house, surrounded by many vehicles, including 2 ambulances. One of them was taking care of Gibbs' hand while the other was just waiting patiently.

Gibbs had heard the shots louder than he thought McGee and even Tony must have heard them. He had been waiting for the shots, although he wouldn't say whether he thought it would be from Ari or Tony's gun.

McGee had given his statement over to Fornell's agents after they had spoken to Tony. Agents were placed everywhere, and the perimeter search was never ending. He saw Gibbs go to the ambulance, even though it wasn't out of his own free will. McGee could tell that that. Anyone could. But he didn't know why he had agreed to go and not tell them to get lost with his glare like he normally would have.

Another van pulled up just then. It was one that they all recognised. It had NCIS written along the side of it. Suddenly McGee realised why Gibbs had gone with the EMTs without much of an argument. It was so he was out of the way and could call Ducky to get there before the FBI took the body and took over the investigation.

'Timothy. Where are the other two?' Ducky asked him once he had been dismissed from the agents. McGee told him and the senior man nodded. 'I see… I did wonder why the FBI would want me to do this autopsy.' Ducky explained. 'How's Anthony?' McGee shrugged.

'Fornell's beating into him pretty hard. But it's Tony. So he's taking it well. I think he's just glad that he got to Ari first and not anyone else.' McGee explained. He may not be a profiler but he knew exactly what was going through Tony's head. Ducky nodded as Gibbs joined them.

'I did think that would be the case. It wasn't just the agent in him that killed Ari, Timothy. Poor Caitlin. She was drowning in relief with the fact that he isn't out there anymore. Now comes the life after it.' Ducky shook his head, leaving McGee confused with his words.

'Alright, Ducky. We have a body to get to.' Gibbs said shortly, leading him into the house. Tony got up to join them, bringing up the rear, following McGee into the place.

'Where do you think you're going, Gibbs?' Fornell snapped as Gibbs stepped into the front room where Ari laid dead. It looked as if no-one had been in there since DiNozzo had came out of it last.

'I'm taking care of my case.' He replied gruffly. Fornell shook his head.

'It's _my _case now, Gibbs.' Gibbs frowned.

'I don't think so. We had jurisdiction on this case before and we still have it now.' He argued.

'You had jurisdiction when Ari was alive and after you. Now dead, he is another terrorist, which is FBI jurisdiction. He has no link to the Navy anymore whatsoever. Not to mention that it was one of your own that killed him.' Fornell countered. Gibbs was seeing red now and the other three NCIS agents and pathologists stood back to allow the other two to have their argument.

'Well, if it weren't for the FBI, we would have been doing this, months back. Or have you forgotten about your mistake of using him as an undercover mole?' Gibbs snarled.

'We used the only way that we could find to infiltrate that group. Ari as a mole was perfect.' Fornell defended his agency. The others watched the argument like a game of tennis, from one side to another.

'Too bad he was a mole for the wrong side!' Gibbs snapped. 'Now move so that we can start on this.'

'I told you-'

'And I told _you_ that this is _our_ case. Not yours. If you wanna argue, take it up with the director. Cos until then, this is still ours.' Gibbs pushed pass him, followed by Ducky, McGee and Tony. When he passed, he gave the FBI agent his famous DiNozzo smirk.

--

Gibbs had his team back at NCIS headquarters as quick as he could get it done. He had heard that Fornell _had_ got in touch with the director, but he didn't know what they had said. Therefore, Gibbs kept the case in his jurisdiction.

When the team exited the elevator, none of them were surprised to see Abby, Kate and Dr. Leery in the bullpen, just sitting around and not doing anything.

'Abby, go with McGee and the evidence and tell me what you get in an hour.' Gibbs instructed straight away. They both nodded and walked off, but not before Abby gave Tony a huge hug.

'Now _that_ I could get use to.' Tony exclaimed as Abby let go of him. She threw him a smirk and a wink over her shoulder and the Goth left with the Probie, everyone's spirits high due to the capture, and death, of Ari Haswari.

Gibbs walked past him, giving him a slap upside the head as he did so. Tony frowned as Kate and the doctor smiled.

'Aw, Boss! What was that for?' he exclaimed. Gibbs threw him a "like you don't know" look.

Gibbs went to sit at his desk as Tony went to where Kate and Dr. Leery still sat at hers. Seeing Kate muffling a yawn, Gibbs jumped up from his seat and threw some keys at Tony which he caught expertly.

'All of you.' Was all that he said as the three of then followed him towards the elevator.

'Where're we going?' Kate asked, her voice not as loud as it had been previously.

'Back to the hospital.' Gibbs replied gruffly. Kate's eyes widened and moaned as Dr. Leery and Tony chose to ignore them, personally glad that she was going back to the hospital like she was supposed to be.

'Gibbs-' Kate started but she was cut off by his stern look as he passed her to exit the elevator. She looked pleadingly at Tony, who was trying desperately to avoid her eyes.

'I'm with Gibbs on this one.' He told her, whipping out his glasses and walking in front of her to stop further protesting from her. He knew that if he didn't, she would almost certainly convince him to argue with Gibbs and let her go home.

Kate sighed once more and looked at Sydney Leery, who smiled sympathetically.

'I'll get you out of the hospital as quick as I can.' She reassured the agent. Kate nodded her thanks and smiled as they sat in the back of the car.

--

Two weeks to the day that Ari had been shot dead, Kate got up from bed at 7am, the earliest since she had been ordered on sick leave after being discharged from hospital a week and 3 days ago.

For the past 2 weeks, Tony had been at home more than usual. Gibbs had given him time off after she had came home; home as in his apartment which was now mixed between the two of them; and then the boss had given him random times off. It was his way of telling Tony to look after her, and as grateful as she was, it kind off annoyed her that they thought she needed someone to take care off her.

With an arm in plaster from shoulder to wrist, it wasn't easy to carry out the day's essentials. Although Tony helped out as much as he could, there was a limit to how many things she needed to do by herself a day to remain sane. And one of these things was getting up and ready for the day.

Getting her clothes off was difficult, but Kate had gotten around that problem by wearing one of Tony's tops to bed, which allowed for her arm to slip through without any movement.

Having a shower _really_ was difficult. Not allowed to get her cast wet, which was doodled over by Tony and Abby, and a bit by herself, she had to cover it with something plastic before getting into the shower. Which wouldn't have been a problem – if she had been left handed.

Tony had gotten up at 6 that morning to allow time for his partner to get ready. He was currently making breakfast as he heard the water running. Neither of them knew why the new director wanted to see Kate that day, but they thought it would be best to do as she said. Also, with Kate going mad being inside all day, it would be a good change for her.

At 8, Kate finally emerged from the bedroom, fully dressed and looking as perfect as ever. Although she hated the cast on her right arm, and the sling that she was forced to wear, Tony couldn't disagree more. He honestly didn't care about it, nor about the scar that would be left behind when it came off. As long as she was alive he was happy.

'Hungry?' he asked her.

'No.' she replied glumly, sitting down at the stool in the middle of the kitchen. Tony walked over to her from the TV that he had been watching and laced his arms around her waist.

'You know you havta eat.' He said, pulling a plate of toast towards her. He laid a kiss on her head and didn't more from his position as she ate; he eyes remaining of the miniature TV in the kitchen.

When she was done, Kate pushed herself out of the stool, making Tony to jump back and yell at her.

'It was your own fault!' she claimed, laughing. Kate grabbed the bottle of pills on the high shelf on her left and shook out two of the white pills before drowning them with water. She pulled a face like she did every time she took them, not liking the bitter taste it left at the back of her tongue.

Tony chuckled and walked out of the kitchen as Kate shot him a glare, still drowning more water. She had been instructed to no more caffeine while on the medication to ease her pain, much to her disappointment.

--

Ari's case had been closed about a week after his death. It was another reason why Tony had had the week off. Because it was him that had shot the terrorist, he was not allowed to be on the case.

Kate had tried to talk to her boyfriend about the attack, but each time that she did, she got the same responses. He would shrug and tell her that she knew it already, or he would laugh and make a joke of it and then change the subject. The only time that she had heard any emotion from him about it was the first time, the first night in the hospital, when she had asked him what had happened, and he explained to her fully as he could. She had felt so bad for him then, but Tony had done his normal thing and brushed it off after he had finished his tale and joked about it, making a reference to another movie.

As she got out of the car now, she felt some relief to be able to come to her own workplace without any fear. Walking slightly ahead of him, Tony placed a hand on her back, silently letting her know that he was there.

The guards and some of the agents gave her a look, which were quickly covered up by pretending to carry on working or do whatever they looked was believable. She took in a breath and straightened her back, causing Tony to let go of her, knowing that she was being Agent Todd now.

Walking into their bullpen, Abby was the first one to acknowledge their presence. Jumping up from Tony's desk, she ran to greet Kate, gently hugging her as if she hadn't seen her best mate in days.

'Hey Abby.' Kate greeted as she let her go.

'Why are you here?' Abby asked her, slightly confused; giving Tony an angry look as if it was his fault she was here.

'The Director wanted to see me. And no, I dunno why.' Kate added before the Goth could say anything else.

'Kate! What are you doing here?' Gibbs asked as he came out of the elevator, also throwing Tony a dirty look. Tony, who had sat down at his desk now, threw up his hands in dismay.

'Well, I thought that I might come back to work now, you know, seeing as I'm better.' Kate joked, but the serious look on her boss' face made her sober up. 'The Director wanted to see me.'

'Why?' Gibbs asked, taking a sip from his coffee.

'No idea.' She looked at the clock on the opposite wall and realised that it was 8.59am, and the Director wanted to see her at 9am. 'I should go now, though.'

'Hold on!' Gibbs yelled as she turned to leave. Kate stopped and faced him, confused. 'I'm coming with you.' He told her, taking the lead on the route up the stairs to her office.

'Ok, then.' Kate muttered under her breath so that only Abby and Tony could hear. They both smirked.

'Hey!' Gibbs snapped from above Tony. 'You! Back to your lab.' He pointed at Abby who shuffled away. 'You! Back to the case!' Tony sighed and sat up straight in his seat. 'And you! C'mon!' he instructed Kate.

Kate tried to catch up with Gibbs, but it was hard when he walked so fast. By the time that she got to the Director's office, Gibbs was already inside the office, and the receptionist told her to go on through.

'Agent Todd. It's a pleasure to meet you.' The director, now a lady, greeted her by shifting her attention from Gibbs to her.

'You too, Director…' Kate trailed off, realising that she didn't know her name.

_Thanks for letting me know, DiNozzo!_ She cursed him.

'Shepard. Director Jenny Shepard.' Jenny informed her. Kate nodded her head, unable to shake her hand. 'Jethro, I believe that you have an investigation to run.'

'It's being taken care of.' Gibbs mentioned casually. 'Now why did you want to see my agent for?'

'That's between me and her.' The red head said in a way as to dismiss him, but Gibbs didn't pay any attention.

Kate stood on the side, not sure what to do. Sure, she found this interesting, but her curiosity was killing her.

'She is my agent, and if it is work related, then I have a right to know.' Gibbs argued.

'Then it is not work related. Now can you please leave before I get security to take you out?' Jenny told him, although they both knew, even Kate knew, that she wasn't serious. Gibbs finally nodded and left reluctantly, but not before giving Kate a look that she had seen many times. He wasn't happy with this.

'Why don't we sit over there, Agent Todd? It'll be more… unofficial, and comfortable.' The Director pointed to the couches against the wall and walked over to the single seater as Kate sat on the three seater.

'So, what's this about, Director Shepard?' Kate asked her.

'I'll just get straight to the point.' Jenny told her, sitting up straighter, but still looking a bit informal. 'In the recent light of events, it has been brought to my attention that nothing has really been done with it, to remove any… _negative_ effects.' She spoke slowly as to get her point across in the most tactful way possible.

Kate thought about what she had said, but she didn't understand it completely.

'I don't understand, Director.' She replied, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Jenny laughed gently.

'I guess my tactfulness wasn't the best way of getting around it.' She paused and thought about it. 'Tell me something, Kate. Since Ari Haswari's first appearance until now, have you spoken to anyone about it?'

'Spoken to anyone? Well, I guess to friends and my partner.' Kate replied, still confused.

'And professionally?' Jenny questioned.

'You mean like a shrink?' Kate asked, surprised. Jenny nodded. 'Um… no. I've thought about it much, to be honest. I can deal with it by myself.' Kate shrugged, which was hard with a single shoulder.

'I think… it would be in your best interest that you see a psychiatrist.' She suggested. Kate's eyes widened at the thought of it. She wasn't an open person, and the idea of telling some stranger her deep feelings was something that she detested off.

'No offence, Director Shepard, but I don't think that it would make any difference whether I see a psychiatrist or not.' Kate politely told her.

'I understand, Kate. But I do believe that it is important for you to get to any problems that you may have.' Kate went to say something but Jenny went on hastily. 'I'm not saying that you have any problems. But as Director now, I would like all my agents to be well, physically, emotionally and mentally. And when you _do_ heal, I would actually order you to see Dr. Kerr then. But I'm giving you the opportunity to do it now and get it out of the way.'

'By giving me the opportunity, you mean you're instructing me to do it sooner rather than later.' Kate chuckled. Jenny laughed.

'In a roundabout way, yes. But I do believe that it's in your best interest, Kate.'

'Alright.' Kate nodded as Jenny smiled at her. She liked this new Director, and she knew that there was a connection between her and Gibbs. Making a mental note to ask Tony and Abby about it, she slowly got to stand up. 'But it doesn't mean that I like it, nor that Dr. Kerr will get anything out of me.'

'Of course, Agent Todd.' Jenny stood up too and guided her out of the office. 'Right now will be fine, yeah?'

'I guess so.' Kate replied, sighing.

'Excellent. I told Dr. Kerr to keep a space right about now, so shall we?' she opened the door for another private room along the top balcony and inside was a doctor and some more couches. 'Dr. Kerr, this is Agent Todd. I trust that you have all the relevant information?'

'Yes, I have, Jenny.' The doctor, about the age of 35 replied. He was remotely good looking, but there was something about him that made him look older than he was, Kate noted.

'Thank you once again.' Jenny added.

'Not at all, Jenny. Not at all.' He replied, and then Jenny dismissed herself and it was just Kate and Dr. Kerr in the secluded room.

And she just wanted to get out of there.

**Right then.**

**I don't know HOW to say HOW sorry I am for the delay! I promise it won't take this long for the next update! I already know what's gong to happen… hehehe… let's just say and old **_**friend**_** comes back…**

**Guesses are welcome – and if you get it – well… I dunno what to offer you… more chapters maybe?**

**Please R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey!**

**Here's a quick update for you! Sorry – I think I kinda went back to my previous story in this chapter – I hope I don't get you confused too much!**

**Please R&R!**

**Tiana xXx**

Kate sat in the comfy couch in the shrink's room. So far, they had been introduced to each other, and that's about it.

'So… Agent Todd. How long have you been working for NCIS then?' Dr. Kerr asked her. Kate was pretty sure that it was written in the folder in front of him, but she decided to answer him, in hope of passing time.

'About 2 years.' She replied simply, sweetly.

'And before NCIS, you worked for the Secret Service, correct?' he enquired. The doctor had his glasses on the tip of his nose reminding Kate of her high school English teacher.

'Yes.'

'And you resigned the day that Gibbs hired you to work here, correct?' Kate just nodded, biting back her sarcastic remark. 'Was that before or after you resigned?'

'After.'

'So what was the reason for your resignation?' Dr. Kerr now looked up from the folder and looked at her interestingly.

'It doesn't say in my file?' Kate asked, her tone still sweet, but with the underlying message of "back off".

'Unfortunately not.' He told her.

'Well, then I guess it's not important.' Dr. Kerr sighed and nodded, knowing not to push her.

'Alright then. Let's just get to the point. I assume that you know why director Shepard arranged this meeting, yes?' he looked at her over his glasses, the file once again open in his lap as he sat opposite her in an almost identical couch.

'Not entirely.' Kate answered honestly.

'Ok, well, why do _you_ think she set this up?' Kate shrugged, hating each second that passed.

'Because of this.' She pointed to her shoulder lazily. It lay in the sling that the doctors had told her to use all the time, no matter how much she hated it.

'Yes, that is correct. Although, the Director also mentioned about the previous incident.' Kate's eyebrow rose at this.

'Previous incident?' she queried, not sure what he was getting at.

'Um…' he flicked through the file before finding the appropriate page. 'About 2 months ago, you were injured while on duty, by your partner.'

'He's not my partner.' Kate told him, ignoring the rest of the statement.

'Not anymore, of course. But at that time, he _was_ your temporary partner.' When Kate didn't reply to argue or to concur, Dr. Kerr took in a breath and let it out slowly. He knew that talking to agents was hard, but this was just plain impossible. 'You wanna tell me what happened that day?'

'It should all be in that file there.' she told him, running her free hand through her hair.

'Yes, but I would prefer to hear _your_ version.'

'Well, that _is_ my version.'

'I'm sure that your account of it will differ a bit to this, Agent Todd.'

'Not really.' Kate meant it dismissively, but this doctor was tough. She knew that if she had used that tone with anyone else, they would have left her alone. Even Gibbs.

'Let's see then.' he waved a hand in front as if to tell her to take stage. Sighing and rolling her eyes, she sat up straighter and retold her account of the events.

Throughout the retelling of the story, which only took 5 minutes, even with him probing into it for more information, Dr. Kerr concluded that she blamed herself for the attack.

'Can I ask you something, Agent Todd?' he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

'You're gonna anyway.' Kate murmured. Dr. Kerr laughed and for a moment Kate didn't feel so bad being there.

'Whose fault was the attack?' he asked. And Kate hated being there once again. He was going all psychoanalytical on her.

'Well… that could be argued on both sides. So I guess both of ours.'

'Why yours? Surely it should he his, with the fact that he was the one that attacked you, right?' Dr. Kerr knew that he had her right where he wanted her. She would think about it and then argue it the way that he knew she would. Which would then allow him to help her.

'Well, yeah, that's why it's his fault too. But I should've been on my guard and not have trusted him so easily. I knew he was a bit-' Kate stopped mid-sentence, realising that she had gone too far.

He saw her open up and was almost joyful with the fact that he was getting somewhere, but when he stopped, Dr. Kerr also saw the shield had been placed up again, but he didn't let this stop him.

'But he was your partner. Surely, you had to trust him?'

'I did.' Her voice had an edge to it. 'My mistake too.'

'Why do you think you shouldn't have trusted him?' Kate looked at him funnily.

'Maybe because he put me in hospital.' She said it a bit slowly, not sure why he would ask such an obvious question. She peered at her watch stealthily, only to see that they had only been there for 25 minutes.

'But he was a Special Agent. You had to trust him, right?' the doctor provoked her.

'I guess so. Maybe the standards for the Agency workers are falling.' She joked.

'What was the reason for the attack?' he asked her, making a slight turn in his approach. When Kate didn't reply in any way, he decided to go on. 'According to this, it was one of a "sexual attraction". Is that correct, Agent Todd?' he peered at her over his glasses once again, making her feel as if he was x-raying her.

'That's one way of putting it.' She mumbled coldly. This was something that she _really_ did not want to get into.

'What would be the other way of putting it? In your words, that is.' Dr. Kerr asked her.

'I dunno.' She shrugged once again, kind off weirdly. 'Maybe just a bit mentally disabled?'

'Do you believe that?'

'Sure, why not?' Kate sighed. She thought about what everyone else must be doing at that time.

_Must be having more fun than me!_

_--_

The new director had decided that it would be a good idea to hire a temporary replacement for Kate, seeing as she would be out for at least another month. Gibbs, of course, had argued against this, pointing out what had happened the last time they had had a temporary agent assigned to their team.

However, Director Shepard assured him that this Agent was nothing like the last one. Although he didn't agree to it at all, Gibbs had no say in the arrival of the new Special Agent when she came in on that morning.

Swapping a few polite greetings, he had learnt from last time that he _wasn't_ going to give her the opportunity to be a "replacement" for Kate, and therefore he gave her the desk to his left, leaving Kate's empty for now.

Now with Gibbs out for coffee, Tony came up from Abby's lab to see just the new agent sitting at her desk, typing away profusely.

'Hey there!' he exclaimed as he walked over to her desk, smiling as always. The new agent looked up from her computer screen and took notice of the person in front of her. She looked a bit Latina, Tony thought. 'I'm Special Agent Tony DiNozzo.' He added as he took a seat in the corner of her desk.

'Special Agent Maria Lopez.' She replied, confirming Tony's assumption about her background.

'Ah… so you're from Spanish descendant?' he asked, still smiling like always.

'Yeah. Well, Latin more, but I do have a hint of Spanish in my genes.' She paused for a second. 'Are you Italian?'

'How did you guess?' Tony's eyes widen in shock, although it was all acting.

'I'm a good observer.' Maria was now starting to smile at him. Tony chuckled.

'Well, we would go good together, don't ya think?' he asked her, and Maria's smile grew wider before dying out as Tony felt the slap on his head.

'You wanna know what else would go good together, DiNozzo?' Gibbs asked him sarcastically.

'Uh…' he trailed off, walking back to his desk as Gibbs followed him.

'You and your partner. Now get back to work.' He said it in a low voice that Tony knew that Maria couldn't have heard it at all. He grinned at her once again before turning to his desk, wondering where Kate had got to.

--

Glancing at her watch once again, Kate was disappointed to see that had only been 45 minutes since the session had begun. She assumed that the session would be for an hour, seeing that most psychologists or psychiatrists usually charged by the hour.

Dr. Kerr had gotten onto the recent events considering Ari, and his previous appearances. Now near to the end of the story telling of the end of the terrorist's life, Kate sighed once again, switching herself back on to pay attention to him.

'You weren't present at the time of the shooting.' He stated.

'No. I was here.' She added.

'So how did you hear about the incident?' he asked, perplexed.

'Gibbs called Ducky to go and take the body. He then told us before he left.'

'And how did you feel when you heard about it?' Kate had to suppress a sarcastic smile when he said that sentence. It was one of the most typical lines of a psychologist to say.

'I felt glad, I guess. He's was out of the way and I could get back to my life, kind of.' It was one of the most honest things that she had told him so far, apart from the obvious things that were in the folder already.

'Even though he left you without the temporary use of your right arm?'

'It could've been worse.' She admitted.

'Really? How so?' Dr. Kerr took his glasses off now and sat back on the couch, giving her his undivided attention. Now Kate felt like a naughty high school pupil in the principle's office.

'Well, he could've attacked Tony, or the rest of the team. He could've killed us even. It's not like he had much of a conscience.' Kate murmured the last bit, but she was pretty sure the doctor had heard it as he leant forwards in his seat once again.

'You and Special Agent DiNozzo are partners, correct?' he asked suddenly. Kate didn't like the change of the conversation, but she let it slip; anything to get off of the subject of Ari.

'Yeah, that's correct.' She nodded along with her statement.

'For how long now?'

'As long as I've been at NCIS, Doctor.' She didn't know why she called him a doctor, but she didn't know what else to call him.

'Two years. You must be pretty close to him, on a more personal level, I mean.' Once again, Dr. Kerr made his sentence a statement instead of a question.

'I guess you can say that.' Kate replied slowly.

'How close are you to Agent DiNozzo exactly?' he now asked her. Kate paused for a moment. There was no way that she was going to pour her heart out to this stranger. Hell, she didn't even do that to someone she knew as long as Tony.

'What do you mean by that?' Curiosity crept into her voice.

'It has been… known for many partners to become rather close over time.' Dr. Kerr worded his line carefully, knowing that Kate's shields were up once again, and he wondered if she would open more to Special Agent DiNozzo, or whether she was always like this.

'We have to trust each other everyday with our lives. I think it is kinda essential to become close.' She stated cynically. Dr. Kerr nodded, and they both knew that that was not what he was getting at.

'Yes, but if I understand correctly, it was because Agent DiNozzo was ill that Agent Morreau was your partner, and it was Agent DiNozzo that shot and killed Ari. Both of these incidents seem to link to you too, Agent Todd, and resulting in getting injured. Do you understand my curiosity?' he asked her gently but Kate couldn't care less.

'Yeah, I do understand it, but it was all a coincident.' Kate stated coolly.

'So if I were to ask you about your relationship with your partner on a more… _intimate_ level, you would reply that it was non-existent?' he probed. Kate's face was set due to many years of training, but if she had not been. Dr. Kerr could tell that she would have boiled with anger and perhaps a bit off discomfiture right then.

'I would reply that it has nothing to do with what I am here for.' She dismissed, her voice neutral like always. 'And seeing as it's got to that point, can I possibly leave now?'

Dr. Kerr suppressed a smirk; he had wondered how long it would take before she would want to leave. He hadn't figured that she would last 55 minutes there.

'Sure, I guess we're done here. It was nice meeting you, Agent Todd.' He stood up and shook her free hand.

'You too.' She replied, politely as always. As she turned to leave the room, he called out to her.

'Agent Todd?' he said suddenly. Kate turned back to face him, one hand still on the door handle. 'Are you a Catholic?' Kate was taken aback slightly with this question.

'Uh… yeah. Why?' she queried into why the sudden question was asked.

'No reason.' He shrugged and turned away from her, allowing Kate to raise her eyebrow into her hair in disbelief as she exited the room.

--

Tony was all alone in the bullpen as Gibbs had taken the new Agent down to autopsy, and McGee was with Abby. Leaning back in his seat and playing on his cell phone, he noticed Kate coming down the stairs in the reflection of his phone before he saw her himself.

When she walked right past him and sat at her desk without a word, Tony carefully eyed her before turning his attention back to the game at hand.

'Why did the Director wanna see you then?' he asked casually.

'Just.' She snapped back, booting up her computer even though she wasn't supposed to be there. When Tony finally looked at her, he raised an eyebrow making her sigh and continue, still paying attention to the computer in front of her. 'She made me see a shrink.' Kate said with disgust.

'Aw. Is little Katie a bit crazy?' Tony teased her. Kate glared back at him.

'Well I must be to be with you.' She hissed at him. Tony's smile fell and he began to pout as Kate smiled sweetly.

'I'd say so.' A voice came from behind Kate's desk as their boss rounded the corner to their bullpen. He stopped in front of her desk, coffee in hand, and looked at her questionably. 'What are you doing here?'

'I thought I'd get back to work, seeing as I'm here now.' Kate replied. Gibbs raised both of his eyebrows and had a ghost of a smile on his face.

'And how do you expect to do that, exactly, Kate? Last time I checked, you weren't left-handed.' Kate frowned at the boss' comment.

'I can still type with one hand, you know, Gibbs.' She said matter-of-factly.

'Yeah, slower than DiNozzo.' Gibbs replied sarcastically. 'You're going home. Now.'

'Well, I can't drive! I only have one hand, you see.' She quipped back. Tony was sitting back watching the argument with amusement when Gibbs suddenly turned to him. The smile on his face straighten, as did his chair.

'Take her home. You've got an hour! If you're not back by then, don't bother coming back.' When Tony smiled at the last bit, Gibbs added 'Ever!'

--

'It was just a waste of an hour, Tony. All he did was remind me of things that I'd rather forget!' Kate told him in a mood. It was around 10pm that night and Kate sat on the couch while Tony sat on the floor on the right to her so that they could see each other while they talked, although the TV was once again playing for distraction.

'If the Director made you go, it must have been for an important reason.' Tony told her. They had had been having this conversation for the past hour or so, ever since he had asked her how the session had been. And in that hour, she had moaned and complained about the time with the psychologist, while he tried to make her see sense into why Director Shepard had taken such a measure.

'Yeah, well, he didn't seem that professional to me anyways.' She mumbled, shuffling on the couch once again. Tony looked at her and rolled his eyes.

'Why not?'

'Just the things he asked me at the end.' Now Tony perked up.

'Yeah? Like what?'

'Like about my relationship with you.' Kate mentioned.

'Well, maybe he thought it was important.' Kate scoffed at his comment. 'What did you tell him?'

'Nothing.' When Tony looked at her in a "seriously?" way, she carried on. 'It's not like there's anything to tell. He wanted to know if we're close, and I said yeah cos we're partners.'

'You know that's not what he meant.' Tony accused.

'Really? I did?' Kate bluffed, cocking her head to the side in an imitation of a bimbo.

'What else did he ask?' Tony went on, not wanting to reply to her question, knowing that it would just push her over the edge.

'It was weird. Right at the end, just as I was leaving, he asked me if I was Catholic.' She told him. Kate was really concentrating on this; Tony could tell as her eyebrows were knitted together. He thought it was rather funny that she was so wound up about such a little thing.

'He asked if you were Catholic? How dare he?' Tony said deadpanned. When she looked at him, she was throwing him death glares.

'Tony!' she exclaimed. He gave her a "what?" look that she rolled her eyes at. 'Never mind. Look, I'm tired. I'm gonna head off to bed, ok?' she informed him, getting up from her position.

'Kate…' Tony said, but she just told him goodnight and walked off. He sat shaking his head, knowing that he had either pissed her off, which wasn't likely seeing as she didn't seem like it, or hurt her.

Slowly, he got up and tidied his place before making sure that it was all locked and secure. When he got back to his bedroom, he saw that Kate was faking being asleep. Sighing, he got ready for bed, finally climbing in behind her.

'I'm sorry.' He murmured to her as he kissed her neck. Feeling her shift a bit in his arms, he pushed himself up to look down on her.

'Don't worry about it.' She whispered back, leaning slightly back so she could see him.

'Why did that question bother you, Katie?'

'I dunno. It's just…' she paused for a second, rubbing absentmindedly at his arm around her waist. 'How did he know?'

'Is that what you've been thinking about?' Tony said, sounded amazed at her revelation. When she looked away from him, he leaned closer to her. 'I dunno how he knew. Maybe it was in your file.'

'He wouldn't have asked if it was.' She told him.

'I dunno then, baby.' He gently leaned over her to see something. 'You don't have your cross on.' He frowned, certain that that was the answer to her worrying.

'I lost it a few weeks back.' She admitted.

'You did?' Tony asked, confused; he was sure she had it just yesterday.

'Yeah. It must have been at that place we went.' She said, referring to the little getaway they had had for a day after she had been let out of hospital.

'Sorry.' He mumbled before giving her a kiss. When he back away, he pushed himself up a bit more. 'Hold on. I'll be right back.' He told a perplexed Kate. It was hard to get her bearings straight after a kiss from Tony, and him disappearing into his walk-in closet wasn't helpful either.

It was about 5 minutes later when he returned. There were several rustlings and clanking in the closet, but Kate couldn't see what he was doing inside it. She was sitting upright in the bed now, her left arm behind her, pushing and keeping her up.

'Here.' He said, giving her a little red box. It was hard and it seemed too little for anything to fit in there.

'What is it?' she asked, turning it in her hand as she removed it from behind her and sat cross-legged.

'Open it and see.' Tony instructed her, switching on the lamp to give her light to see.

Gently, Kate pulled the top of the box, and placed on the side on her. Inside, all she could see was a thing gold chain. When she looked at Tony, he nodded at her to pick it up. She put her pinkie finger into the box to pull up the chain. Once it was all out, Kate gathered it into the palm of the injured arm, prodding it with the left hand.

'It's beautiful.' She exclaimed in a hushed tone. On the end of the chain, there was a crystal, maybe even a diamond, cross with a gold lining around it. The crystal was bigger than her cross had been.

'Yeah? You like it?' Tony asked her, his voice the same as hers.

'Of course I do.'

'You can have it.'

'What? Tony no, I can't.' she took her eyes off of the necklace now to look at her boyfriend sitting in front of her.

'Yes you can. I never wear it. It doesn't deserve to be kept in there, Kate.' Tony assured her.

'But still. It's yours. I can't just _take_ it.' Kate argued.

'I'm giving it to you. I've had it for the past 28 years. Now you can have it.' Tony countered.

'You've had it all you life?' Kate was amazed. The cross was a bit too big and heavy for a newborn baby. Tony picked it up from her hand and placed it on its side. There, in the gold lining, were several inscriptions. She noted that on one side was Tony's full name, and on the other, his date of birth.

'It was present. You know, how all Catholic's get there first cross when their born, or baptised, or whatever.' Tony dismissed.

'Who gave it to you?'

'My mom, I think.' He shrugged. She looked at him hard, knowing about his mother. 'But I still want you to have it.' Tony tugged it out of her hands and climbed around her to help her put it on. When he had clasped it at the back, he returned to the front and looked at it. 'Perfect.'

Kate had to admit, it _was_ a perfect fit. Although it was bigger and the chain was a bit longer than her previous one, it was perfect for her. She touched it softly.

'Thank you.' Kate whispered as she leaned in to give him a kiss.

'You're welcome.' Tony grinned in reply. 'Now, let's get some sleep yeah?'

Once they were in bed again, neither of them could sleep. Kate kept fiddling with her new piece of jewellery, and Tony kept stroking any part of her he could find.

'Tony?' Kate called out suddenly into the darkness. She turned a bit, but moaned in pain when her shoulder jarred Tony's. 'Urgh… I _hate_ this.'

'Hate what?' he asked her in return.

'Not being able to see you to talk to you in bed.' She sighed. After a moment's thought, Tony slowly pulled Kate back towards his side of the bed. 'What are you doing?' she asked him cautiously.

'Trust me.' He replied, giving her a kiss as he placed his hand on the other side of her. While keeping a hold of her lips, he managed, with ease, to climb over her in the bed so that he was now lying in front of her. 'So what was it you were saying?' Kate laughed at his actions.

'I love you.' She told him.

'You made me do all that for _that_?' Tony mocked. When Kate kicked him, he smiled. 'I love you, too.'

She snuggled closer into him, the closest she had been to him ever since she had been injured. Although her arm was forced to be in between them, she could feel her necklace pressed against his chest, and it felt good to know he was there.

--

Kate didn't know what had woken her up at 2.53am. As she lay in the bed with Tony still sleeping in front of her, she tired to think about why she was awake. But as she did so, she heard a noise which was no doubt the same noise that had woken her up.

She sat up slowly, her left arm keeping her up. Tony stirred when he felt her leave his arms.

'Kate?' he murmured to her.

'Shhh.' she replied, still listening to whatever she had heard. It was a familiar sound to her. 'Did you hear that?' Kate asked him.

'Huh? Hear what?' he struggled to wake up that early. Suddenly there was another sound that was even louder than before.

'I think there's someone here, Tony.' She whispered to him, almost frightful.

**Ok… well that's the end of chapter 13.**

**I think there's gonna be 2 chapter's now. So please R&R! I've got an idea for a sequel already (I know I know) **

**Please let me know what you think.**

**Tiana xXx**


	14. Chapter 14

**Heya.**

**Well, this is the penultimate chapter, so please R&R?**

**Tiana xXx**

The same sound came once again and Kate turned to Tony in hope.

'_Please _tell me you heard that.' She practically begged him. This time, Tony sat up straighter and nodded.

'I heard that.' He got out of bed and some more clothes on before getting his gun out of his bedside table. 'Have you got yours?' he asked, his voice low. His movements were almost silent; just like a trained Agent's.

'Yeah.' She leaned over to the table on the other side to her where she kept her gun at his place.

'Ok, good.' He said, checking his own gun. 'Stay here.'

'_What_?' Kate exclaimed, her voice still as low.

'Kate! You're injured! So stay in here, ok?' he instructed. But Kate was determined and her face was set.

'Tony-' but she was cut off before she could get another word in.

'I'm not gonna argue with you on this. Just stay in here where you're safe!' He snapped at her and he then opened the bedroom door and left after peering out to see the clearing.

Kate sat, pissed off, on the bed. She knew that Tony trusted her in the field, and treated her like an equal, even after they got together. But right then he didn't. So she decided to get change, with a bit of difficulty, and get ready just in case.

--

Tony had never, in the past 3 years of being in NCIS, nor in the years before whilst in Baltimore PD, experienced anyone trying to attack him in his own home. So he took it like he would if it was somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Slowly walking, trying not to make any sound whatsoever, Tony rounded the first corner that led to the main hallway. He kept his gun out in front just in case. When he finally got nearer to the door, he could feel the gust of the night wind blowing into the hallway and at Tony's bare feet.

_Note to self; wear shoes next time_ Tony cursed at himself. In his rush to get ready, he had forgotten about footwear. Looking around, he didn't like the fact that he couldn't see anyone in his place, nor that anything had been touched. Doing some quick calculations, he figured out that he could make it to his door and slip on his shoes there without risking being seen.

When he crept over to where his shoes were, another quick glance into his main living room proved to him that the person behind the break-in wasn't after anything like in a burglary, but rather it was something personal.

Taking the risk to turn his back on the main living area for one second, Tony kicked his shoes out so that he could put them on easily. Once he had done the task, he decided to shut his front door, wanting to trap the bastard in his place inside. Although when he thought about it, he pondered of getting Kate out of the place first, but with the fight that she had put up before hand, it would be almost impossible to make her leave.

So Tony reached out his left hand and shut the door gently, checking behind it to make sure, before turning back to the hallway and the living area to see if there were any movements. However, before Tony had fully shut the door, it jammed.

Tony turned on his heel as quick as he could, but it was still too slow to avoid the punch coming for him. It hit him right on the eyebrow, cutting it due to the bone that was there. But he could handle the pain of it as the guy entered his place and tried to get his gun off of him.

The intruder had thought that by attacking the NCIS Agent before he made a move for the weapon would make it easier for him. He hadn't thought, however, what would happen if the NCIS Agent ignored the pain that seared through him and pointed his gun at him.

Tony was taking deep breaths in and out to keep his headache at bay. When he finally looked at the guy in front of him, the only light coming from the moon outside via the door which was now swung wide open, Tony knew exactly who it was.

'Why are you here?' he asked him gruffly, the gun still trained on him.

'Revenge.' He replied simply. Tony looked into the guy's eyes, and was once again astonished with the fact one was blue and one was brown.

'Well, too bad.' Tony smirked. But the smirk was mirrored on the guy's face too, and Tony wondered why the hell the unarmed guy would be happy. It was then that he saw a moving shadow outside the door. At any other time, he would've dismissed it as a cat, but right then he couldn't. So Tony looked out through the door instinctively.

And as he did so, the intruder took his opportunity to wrestle the gun out of Tony's hand. With his attention back onto the bi-coloured eyed guy, Tony found out that his grip on the gun was quite hard, and was surprised that Gibbs had overpowered him when they had last met.

He still had the gun in his hand, and Tony was pretty sure that he knew how to use it and kill him with it. So he did the only other thing he knew how to do; he hit him. Hard. Right across the face. He was pretty sure it was hard enough to knock him out, but the guy still stood, clutching his face in pain. But it was enough for Tony to grab the gun back from him.

Blue and brown eyed guy saw red when he was hit. Pulling himself up into a standing position, he fixed his jaw tight, pretty sure it must be broken, and planned to hit back. However, before he could, something else stopped him.

'Don't move.' Now he had two guns trained on him. And he was sure he was screwed.

Tony heard Kate before he saw her. When he flickered his eyes over to her, he frowned while she smiled at him innocently. He shook his head in a minuscule way that he was sure she couldn't see.

'Here.' Kate said to him as she tossed him a pair of hand cuffs, briefly lowering her gun to do so. As soon as they left her hand, though, the gun was back in position onto the guys head.

Tony caught the pair with ease, not moving an eye from the criminal. He roughly pulled him out of the door and handcuffed him, really tightly, to the railing outside of his door to ensure he wouldn't move anytime soon. When he entered his apartment once again, he wasn't surprised to see Kate still waiting there.

'What kind of idiot breaks into a house unarmed?' she commented, laughing. Tony didn't seem to find it funny.

'What kind of idiot aims a gun at while injured?' he retorted back. Now Kate's smile fell and she crossed her free arm so that it looked like she did actually have her arms crossed. Tony stood opposite her, both glaring at each other.

'Well, what kind of _idiot_ decides to take down a criminal _barefoot_? And without handcuffs?' Kate argued back. But Tony ignored her last comment.

'I told you to stay in the bedroom. What part of "stay here" did you not understand?' Tony snapped. Kate raised an eyebrow; she couldn't remember the last time that he had snapped, and she was sure he had never snapped at her before.

'When I heard the fighting, Tony. That's when I thought I should not "stay here". I'm still your partner, and you needed me there.' She defended herself.

'Did not!'

'Did too!'

'I was handling it all well!'

'You didn't have any handcuffs!'

'Didn't make a difference, did it? I still got him. Anyway,' he carried on before Kate could interrupt, 'we should call Gibbs.'

'I've done it.' She replied, smiling once again.

'Then why isn't he here yet?' Almost as soon as the words left Tony's mouth, the sound of a dieing car engine was heard via the open door. Kate once again smiled at him while he frowned.

'Oh come on! You can't stay mad at me for _that_!' she argued with him, but he ignored her and didn't see her roll her eyes as he went to meet Gibbs outside.

'What happened?' Gibbs asked straight out as soon as he saw Tony.

'Broke in.' was all that he said in reply. Gibbs nodded and walked in front of his Agent to the place where the guy was handcuffed.

'And assault?' Gibbs asked him in regard of his bloody eyebrow.

'I guess you can say that.' Tony shrugged. When Gibbs approached the criminal, he wasn't surprised to see that he was in a worse state than Tony. Gibbs just nodded and turned to enter into Tony's place.

Inside, Kate was still leaning against the wall, able to see outside and at the guy handcuffed, although she doubted that he could see her, or anything for that matter.

Gibbs came through the door and saw her lazily standing there, and he threw her a questioning look, which translated as "you ok?".

'I'm fine.' She assured him and he nodded reluctantly.

'Explain, and start from the beginning.' He instructed to the two of them, but it was Tony who answered.

Tony explained in his usual laidback manner. When he was done, Gibbs turned to Kate as if to ask her her side of the story. The only thing that she could add was when she had called Gibbs there and then when she came out of the room.

'Is that it?' he made sure. The two Agents both said yes and Gibbs nodded once again. 'Ok then. I'll take him back to HQ and get him back to prison like he should be. I'll need your account on this tomorrow morning, DiNozzo!'

'I can do it now.' Tony replied. Both Kate and Gibbs stared at him as if he were a ghost. Tony volunteering, and _actually_ volunteering, not being forced to volunteer, to do work when he didn't need to was just too much to comprehend.

'No. I think you should get that head check out, though DiNozzo, if you're making suggestions like that.' Gibbs smirked at his comment as Kate hid a laugh. The other Agent, however, stood confused.

'What? I'm fine! It's just a little cut!' he defended himself. Gibbs' smirk slid off of his face.

'No DiNozzo, and that's final! I'd like to get this done as quickly as possible tonight, and you coming down won't help.' The ex-Marine headed out of the door now, un-cuffing the guy on his way. 'And get your girlfriend to clean you up! I'm not having another injured Agent!' he yelled back just as the door slammed shut.

Tony and Kate exchange confused looks. Ever since they had been together, not once had Gibbs acknowledged them in a relationship status. Finally, even after everything that had happened that night, they both ended up laughing. Neither knew why, but it was just something that was contagious between the two of them.

Kate was able to drag Tony to the bathroom, where she found the First Aid kit. Making him sit on the rim of the bathtub, she gently poured some medical sprit onto a cotton ball and tried to dab his eyebrow.

'Stay still!' Kate snapped, but the smile that broke out on her face ruined the effect. 'It's hard enough to do this one-handed, DiNozzo, without you moving like a BoBo doll!' this sentence made him stay still as he interpreted the words, allowing Kate to attend to his cut.

'What's a BoBo doll?' he asked after giving a couple of hisses of pain as the spirit stung him.

'It's a doll-'

'Well, duh!' Tony interrupted. Because of that, she pressed harder against the wound, causing some of the liquid to drip down and onto his eyelid. 'Ok! Sorry!' he added urgently, knowing that it would sting like hell if it went into his eye.

'Good.' Kate nodded, wiping away the excess spirit with a clean cotton ball. She then got out a clear cut tape, and placed it on the small wound to help it to heal. Kate now moved onto the hand. 'Do you have to hit so hard?' she murmured as she examined his hand.

'Yes I do. Now back to this BoBo doll…' he prompted as Kate got some more cotton balls to clean the grazing on his knuckles.

'It's a doll that keeps on moving. And when you hit it, it just bounces back up again.' Tony's face showed recognition as Kate informed him.

'Oh! Like the ones you use when you practice boxing!' a raised eyebrow from Kate made him explain how he knew that. 'I used it in college.'

'Really? You boxed?' the information had intrigued her. 'Here, hold this.' Kate instructed as she paled the bandage on his hand to wrap around the knuckles.

'Yeah, I did. I am a Phys. Ed. major you know.' He looked at her questioningly, eyes narrowed as she pinned the bandage and began to pack away. 'Why? Does boxing do something to you? Or the BoBo doll? Turn you on maybe?' Tony hinted heavily. Kate elbowed him as he stood behind her while she washed her hand.

'I was just wondering how you managed to box wit those hangovers you must've had every morning.' Kate quipped.

'Well, imagining that the doll was the girl in my bed that morning was a great motivator, ya know?' Tony responded, joking, but Kate shoved him backwards, causing him to almost tumble into the bath. When she saw the position that he was in, Kate couldn't help but to crack up. 'You find this _funny_, do you?'

'Well, obviously. That's why I'm laughing!' she joked back as Tony lunged for her. She let out a little scream and ran into the bedroom as quick as she could. Which wasn't good enough as he caught up with her as soon as she was through the door.

'I'll make you pay for that, Todd.' He whispered harshly into he rear, making her squirm even harder.

'Tony!' she gasped. 'I'm injured!' he immediately, thought reluctantly, let her go. 'Good.' Kate turned around and pulled him by the shirt to her, kissing him as he got close enough to.

Slowly, when she decided that just because it was 4.30am it didn't mean she was tired, Kate walked back to the bed, never letting go of Tony in any way. Stepping on the bed, Tony helped her to lay down on her back with him above of her. They both knew where it was going, but neither cared of their predicament. All they cared about was each other.

And who could have blamed them.

**OK!**

**That was longer than planned but never mind.**

**Next chapter WILL be the last and will be mainly TATE fluff (and MAYBE McGabby and/or Jibbs!)**

**Please R&R! Please? Reviews encourage me to keep on writing. Even if it's just a 'Thanks' or an 'I hated it'…**

_**(Btw – I was wondering is anyone could help me with a FanFic Story that I once read but can't find anymore. It was about Tony and Kate – and Kate had bitten his finger during sex (I think) but he wouldn't admit to it except to Ducky… if you know which story I'm talking about (or if it's yours!) could you PLEASE let me knw?!)**_

**Tiana xXx**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey!**

**Ok – so this is the final chapter of this story! And I'm sad about it. HOWEVER! I am planning another sequel – but that's just if you're interested in reading it lol!**

**So please R&R for the last time!**

**Btw – I was upset that no-one knew that story that I was looking for! It's not your fault… but I REALLY wanted to read it again lol!**

**Tiana xXx**

'You're late.' Kate murmured in her half asleep form. There was a little moan from behind her as Tony settled into bed and wrapped his arms around her.

'Blame Gibbs.' He responded, yawning. It was half two in the morning and the boss had kept the team at the HQ until the case notes were written up; which had been at 2am. As soon as they were allowed to leave, Tony left as soon as he could.

'I didn't see you earlier.' Kate added. The Director had asked for her to come in once again. It turned out to be a follow up to the previous appointment with the psychologist a month before. This time, however, it was a different psychologist.

'Interviewing suspect. Abby bring you home?' he whispered. Before that night, he had only had 4 hours sleep the night before, and 5 the night before that.

'After a lot of convincing.'

'She didn't want to take you?' Tony asked, surprised. He knew that Abby would do almost anything for her friends, especially Kate.

'Gibbs didn't. There was a lot of evidence for her. _But _she managed to convince him.' She gently shuffled so that she could look at Tony behind her. Her shoulder wasn't that painful at all anymore, but she couldn't sleep on it yet.

'Figures.' he chuckled. 'How did it go?' Abby had informed him that Director Shepard had wanted to see his girlfriend for another appointment, but she hadn't relayed any other information.

'She said I had _issues_.' Kate huffed. The entire session had gone all well until at the end, when the psychologist had summed up what she had thought of the Agent. 'An hour and she said I had _issues_! I don't even know what kind of issues she meant!' she grumbled.

Tony tried his best not to laugh at her outburst, and to do so, he pressed his face into her neck. When he did that, Kate frowned, not pleased with the silence.

'Aren't you gonna say anything?' she snapped. Tony stayed in his position for a moment before sighing.

'What should I say?' he asked, looking at her now.

'Well, how about "Why would she say that for?"?' Kate replied, sarcasm dripping with her words. Tony once again remained silence while they looked at each other. Well, Kate glared at him.

'Have you thought about the fact… that just maybe…' Tony paused while Kate gave him a "go ahead" look. 'That maybe she's right?'

'I _don't_ have issues!' Kate's eyebrow rose as she stressed the second word for emphasis. 'And if you think I do, maybe you should be sleeping with _her_ instead!' she turned away from him to go back to sleep.

Tony sighed once again and smirked. He once again wrapped his arms around her and made her fit against him, like always, although she remained stiff.

'Love you, Katie.' He whispered into her ear, and she reluctantly relaxed.

'Whatever.' She threw back to make up for the body's resilience. Tony laughed once again and was glad to be able to fall asleep.

--

The sound of a ringing cell phone was heard almost as frequently as a chirping bird when you were a NCIS Agent. It didn't mean, however, that it was a pleasant sound. Especially when it woke you up on the weekend, or at an hour too early.

Tony tried to shut it up as quick as he could, not wanting it to wake Kate up. Without even opening his eyes, he was able to find it and snap it open.

'DiNozzo.' His voice was hoarse and deep from sleep.

'DB in Norfolk. Need you in now.' Gibbs' voice came through to him.

'Boss, it's 7 in the morning! Can't I come in at 9?' he tried to negotiate.

'No, DiNozzo.' Was the only reply he got before hearing the click as the Boss hung up. Tony sighed as he placed the phone back onto the bedside table and lay on his back, an arm still around Kate.

Slowly, Tony started to extract his arm out from under Kate's waist. It was hard to do and not to wake her up. Now that she wasn't on her medication, which used to make her drowsy, Kate would normally wake up to any little thing. The break in had made her a little paranoid, although she had a hold of it now. But Tony didn't want to wake her up that early in the morning for no reason.

When the task at hand was done, he leaned over her still sleeping form just to make sure that she wasn't pretending to sleep. Glad that she wasn't, Tony pushed himself off of the bed slowly and went into the bathroom to wake himself up thoroughly.

Tony emerged from there 20 minutes later, looking as if he had stepped out of a magazine; clean and sexy. Happy to see that Kate was still asleep, he smirked as he remembered the date when he looked at his cell. Shaking his head, he went into his closet and pulled out a box that he had hid in there a couple of days beforehand.

The box was black and quite big. Lighter than it would look to be, there was a slight glimmer of silver in the corner where the word "Prada" was written. Tony placed it on the table next to the balcony in his room which was now mainly covered in Kate's everyday essential things, such as make up and sprays.

Grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, Tony quickly scribbled a note and then folded it before placing it on top of the box. He left the box on the bed next to where Kate's feet lay and then stole a kiss from her as he made sure that she was _still_ asleep. Satisfied that she was, Tony left her to sleep and headed to work.

--

The alarm that went off at 8.15am everyday was what woke Kate up. When she realised that no one, as in Tony, was going to turn it off, she shuffled around so that she was on her back and hit the clock on the other side of the bed.

Kate now lay on her back in the empty bed with her eyes closed, trying to get her bearings, and to see if she could tell where Tony was. When she heard no movement around the apartment whatsoever, she pushed herself up to look at the time. It was then that her feet hit the box.

With her attention now focused on black box, she sat up straighter so that she could reach it with her free arm. Pulling it to her, Kate had to keep a finger on the note on top of it to stop it from sliding away when she glided it up onto her lap.

Kate bit her bottom lip as she saw her name on top of the paper. It was the handwriting of only one person, and she could tell that he was in a rush to write it. Carefully unfolding it, Kate used the morning light streaming in through the drapes to read it.

_Katie_

_Didn't want to wake you so I thought I'd leave this here. Hope you like it. I sure did. It's for tonight – you better have not forgotten. Have fun at the hospital. I'll see if I can make it._

_Love Tony_

_PS. You don't have any issues. You're perfect the way you are._

She laughed at the words. It was only because of two years of practice that she could read what he had written. Gently, as if it would dissolve if it wasn't handled with such care, Kate put the note on the bedside table so that she could open the box in front of her. She skimmed her fingers over the corner where the silver writing was.

_Tony, what have you done?_ Kate sighed mentally, but she still couldn't wipe the smile off her face. Pulling the top off, Kate heard the rustling of tissue paper underneath. She separated these into half, pushing them on the side so that she could see what was under it.

Inside it was black. Kate pulled up the black material, and gasped when she saw the top half. It was a magnificent black dress. She imagined that it went down to the floor, and it was held up by thin spaghetti straps.

Once again, Kate found herself biting her bottom lip. Her hospital appointment today was so that she could get her cast removed. It was also why she and Tony were going out for dinner. But even if it was going to be removed, there was going to be a raw scar on her shoulder and arm.

Sliding out of bed, Kate finally pulled the whole dress out of the box and held it in front of her in the mirror. It was the perfect length, and she assumed that it would be a perfect fit. If there was one thing that Tony was good at, it was at clothes. And, of course, making her happy.

Turning back to place the dress back so that it wouldn't get ruined, she was surprised to see something else in the box. Kate let out a laugh when she figured out what it was.

For the rest of the morning, Kate was in a daze, thinking about what she was going to do for their date that night. It was a while since she had felt like that, but she was happy to.

When Tony texted her to tell her that he wouldn't be able to come with her to the hospital, Kate called for a cab and went by herself. Secretly, she was glad. She didn't want Tony to see her without her cast until that night, when she was going to look her best.

--

At 6pm, Kate received another text from Tony, letting her know that he probably wouldn't be let off work within the next hour. He had told her previously that the reservation at the restaurant was for 9pm. He had made it purposely late just in case Gibbs _did_ decide to make him work that day.

So Kate decided to get ready and give Tony a surprise. It took her a little over a half an hour to get ready, seeing as she had had all day to plan what to do and wear. The cab came about 5 minutes after she was all done, and Kate was outside NCIS headquarters by 6.55pm.

A sense of nostalgia hit her when she entered the elevator to go up to the bullpen. Although she had been there the day before, she still couldn't help it.

When the elevator finally got to the floor that she wanted, Kate wasn't surprised to see that no one else was there apart from Gibbs' team. And even there, there was only Tony and the new Agent that she hadn't met yet.

'Gibbs isn't going to like this.' She heard Tony sigh as he stood in front of the plasma with Agent Lopez, as she had been told her name was.

'Maybe we should just _not_ tell him and contact FBI ourselves.' The newbie replied. Kate saw Tony shake his head from where she stood by her desk; they had their backs to her.

'Yeah, and be murdered by Fornell instead. Not to mention that when Gibbs finds out, he'll kill us all over again.' He said sarcastically. Kate could almost see him rolling his eyes. 'No, we'll just tell him and _he_ can handle the FBI.'

'He still won't like it. Gibbs hates it…' the rest of the sentence that Agent Lopez was saying to Tony was ignored as he turned around to head back to his desk. Instead he saw Kate. Finally.

'Hey.' She said softly. Tony's eyes went from up to down and back up again in a matter of seconds. The dress that he had bought for her was perfect. It hit the floor, but it didn't trail behind. The dip in the front was not too bad, and modest enough for a girl like Kate. And the shawl that he bought with it was wrapped around her shoulders to cover up her scars.

Agent Maria Lopez wasn't aware that her partner was no longer paying attention to her until she heard someone behind her say something. Stopping mid-sentence, she turned to see who it was. The lady with the black dress was awfully beautiful, and she was certain that was the reason why Agent DiNozzo, the skirt chasing and egoistic Tony DiNozzo, had totally forgotten about her existence.

'Wow.' Tony replied to Kate's greeting a bit later. 'Do you know how good you look?' he smirked as she tilted her head.

'Really? Me?' she asked, faking innocence.

'Yeah.' He walked up closer to her. 'So what are you doing here?'

'Well, I was meant to go out with my boyfriend, you see. But it looks like I'm going to be stuck here until then.' she sighed and leaned against her own desk.

'Poor you.' He teased her. 'Nice dress, by the way. Prada?'

'Maybe. You'll havta ask my boyfriend.' Kate winked and laughed at Tony eyed her once again. The other Agent there just watched the exchange between them, not sure what to do.

'He has good taste. No doubt good looking too.' Tony said seriously. Kate laughed.

'Wouldn't you like to know?' She winked at him once more and then finally acknowledged the other Agent. 'I'm going to see Abby. I think you should get back to work.' She nodded towards the bored, and slightly frustrated, Agent who was waiting for Tony.

Tony watched as Kate walked away, the dress clinging to her at every curve. When she was no longer in sight, he turned around, cleared his throat and went on as if the encounter had never happened.

--

The doors swished open, and Kate was greeted by the loud rock music that was always playing in the forensics lab. And she was also greeted with the sight of Abby with her arms around McGee as they typed furiously at the keyboard.

Kate waited until they had stopped with their work when she finally made her presence known.

'Hey!' she yelled. It wasn't too loud, but loud enough to be heard over the music. Immediately, Abby turned around, while McGee peered over his shoulder.

'Kate!' Abby squealed before running up to her best friend. 'I can hug you!' she exclaimed before doing so.

'You've always hugged me.' Kate replied, confused.

'Yeah, but now I'm not causing you pain. Plus, it's easier.'

'Thanks, Abby.' Kate laughed. 'Hey, McGee.' Kate greeted him.

'Hey, Kate. You look really nice. And I'm glad you're out of that cast.' He told her sincerely.

'Thanks Tim. I'm glad too. Now all that's left is convincing Gibbs to let me come back to work.' She rolled her eyes and Abby laughed.

'So show me!' she chirped jumping up and down on her spot.

'Show you what?' Kate asked.

'The scar!' Abby almost shouted as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Kate raised an eyebrow and was about the reply when McGee's cell rang. He hung up with a "yes boss" and left the lab in a hurry. 'C'mon Kate! It's just you and me now!'

'It's nothing, Abby.' She denied.

'Well, then show me. If it's nothing, then it won't matter.' Abby told her. 'Please?' she pleaded.

'Fine.' Kate sighed, giving in to her pouting face. Her right arm was still bent as the muscles were stiff and it hurt to straighten. So she was using that hand to hold the shawl on her shoulders. Now, she pulled the pieces of fabric off the right shoulder and Abby peered at her arm in awe.

'Wow!' Abby exclaimed. 'That's a _nice_ scar.' She turned peered at the one on the back of her shoulder. 'This one too. Man, you're lucky!' she gushed.

'Lucky?' Kate asked, surprised. 'I wouldn't call this "lucky" Abs.' Kate shook her head, laughing.

'I would! The only scars I have are from childhood.' She pouted as if it were a bad thing.

'Yeah, well. It's the risks of being an NCIS Agent I guess.' Kate shrugged. She forgot how easy it was to do so. With her cast, her shoulder could hardly move.

'So…' Abby started as she walked into her "office" with Kate following. 'You look hot.' Kate laughed as she sat in Abby's chair, pulling the shawl back over her. 'Tony's been pretty excited all day, you know.'

'Yeah, I expected him to be.' Kate rolled his eyes, knowing her boyfriend's tendencies when it came to dates. God knew how many times she had heard and seen him gloat before it was the two of them.

'You should've seen him. He was worse than a child on Christmas Eve!' Abby exclaimed. 'Onto more pressing matters.' She hurried on before Kate could get a word in side words. 'Did you know that McGee had a tattoo on his butt?'

'Um…' Kate thought about the sudden question. 'Yeah, I did. Why?'

'I found out last night.' She squealed. It took a moment for Kate to realise what she meant.

'_Seriously_?' Kate asked, leaning forward as Abby sat on her desk. 'I thought he was here until about 2.'

'He was. And so was I.' Abby laughed. 'We were gonna go out last night, but that didn't happen. So I stayed until he was free to go, and one thing led to another.' She squealed once again as Kate scoffed, laughing.

'That's great, Abby. I think.' When Abby nodded, Kate laughed harder. 'Ok then, that's great.'

'Yeah. Though I think I scared him a bit with the coffin and, you know, the first time and stuff.'

'You mean… you and McGee… in the coffin?' Kate came out with. She didn't know how to word it. She didn't want to go into specifications. She still had to work with the guy!

'Yup! Where else? Somehow, I don't think Timmy is the kind of guy to do it in the kitchen, or the bathroom, or on the couch, or-'

'I get the message!' Kate cut her off with her hand up. 'I didn't need to know that.'

'I'm just saying.' Abby shrugged. 'I mean, it's not like he's Tony.'

Kate stared at her wide eyed at her comment.

'Say what now?' she asked, astounded.

'What?' she defended herself. 'I just get the feeling that Tony is a bit more… you know…_carefree_… than Timmy.' Abby shrugged as Kate shook her head.

'Ok. Well, I think I'm gonna stop this conversation here.' She told the Goth.

'Aw, c'mon Kate! I told you.'

'I didn't tell you to tell me!' Kate said, smirking as Abby's face fell.

'Fine!' Abby folded her arms and stood up. Her anger stayed with her when the two of them made their way to the main part of the lab, where the anger dissolved completely. 'Hey, has Tony seen you yet?'

'Yeah.' Kate replied and she couldn't help but to notice that her mate's face fell as she did so. She laughed and got onto the elevator to go back up once more.

In the bullpen, the first four desks were empty, but the final one, on the left hand side of Gibbs' wasn't. Seeing that the Agent was working, Kate left her to her own devices and sat at her own desk.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' Agent Lopez's voice came to her as she settled into her seat.

'Sorry?' Kate asked, not sure if she was talking to her or not. Maria looked up at her and nodded.

'That desk you're at. It belongs to Special Agent Todd.' She replied. Kate was confused for a second before realising that she probably didn't knew that she _was_ Special Agent Todd.

'I know.' Kate told her. 'I _am_ Special Agent Todd.' As soon as the words left her mouth, she could tell that the new Agent didn't believe her.

'You're Special Agent Todd?' Agent Lopez asked cynically. She had gotten up and walked over to her desk.

'Yes.' Kate nodded once. 'Why?'

'If you _are_ Agent Todd, then why are you here?' Agent Lopez asked, still not believing her.

'Cos I'm waiting for my boyfriend.' Kate smiled politely, though it was mainly in spite to the other woman. .

'Is he an Agent?' Maria's voice low and slow as if she was talking to a kid or to someone stupid.

'If he wasn't, would I be here?' Kate replied in the same tone, still smiling. It must have been a trait that she got off of DiNozzo, because she was sure that before she knew him, Kate wouldn't have been so sarcastic nor playful.

'Do you have some proof?' Kate's eyebrow rose for the second time that night.

'Not really.' It was true. The only thing she had with her was some money and her cell phone, which were both on a small wrist purse that also came with the dress.

'Then tell me this. How did you get into HQ?' the new Agent asked.

'Because I've worked here for the past 2 years, maybe.' Kate replied, rolling her eyes.

'I don't believe you.'

'Yeah, I kinda figured that.' Kate sighed. 'Look, I don't care if you believe me or not. I'm not going to stay here for long.' When Agent Lopez didn't make to move Kate added. 'Think about this. If I _weren't _Special Agent Todd, then why did Tony recognise me?'. That had gotten her attention and she nodded stiffly before shuffling away to her desk once again. Kate shook her head unbelievingly.

20 minutes later, it was 8.15pm, and Tony and McGee came down from MTAC. Kate hadn't asked where the two of them were, and found it funny how they had been up there while Agent Lopez hadn't.

'I'm gonna head off. Night Tony, Maria. Bye Kate.' McGee said as she grabbed his stuff and walked off as they all replied.

'So you done?' Kate asked Tony when he sat at his desk. He winced and then smiled at her.

'15 minutes maybe?' he told her and earned a glare. 'I'm kidding! You don't think that I would let McGeek go and not myself?' Tony teased as he tidied up.

'Where's Gibbs?' she asked him while walking over to his desk and perching herself on its edge.

'Went to see the director.' He told her.

'You think there's something going on between them two?' Kate asked him. Tony looked up at her from his seat.

'I dunno. Why? You know something that I don't?' he narrowed his eyes at her.

'I'm just saying that they are a bit _comfortable_ around each other'

'Well, they used to be partners, remember?' Tony informed her.

'Yeah I know.' Kate and Abby had spent many times trying to figure out the relationship, if there was any, between their boss and his boss. The only thing they had found out was that they had previously been NCIS partners.

'And I don't think he would cheat on Dr. Leery either.' Tony added. Kate raised an eyebrow.

'They're not going out.' She told him.

'What?' he asked. 'I thought they were.' Kate laughed sheepishly.

'Yeah, I guess I forgot to tell you that. They weren't going out at all. That dinner was a one off. It was part of the deal for letting me out early.' When Tony looked at her with disbelief, Kate smiled. 'Sorry.'

'I'm sure you are.' He sighed. 'Well, maybe they are going out then. Gibbs always had a thing for redheads.'

'Yeah. But it would be nice to know whether they were or not. Abby's going mad-' Kate stopped suddenly and without another beat carried on. '-the case must have been important though. At least it's done now, huh?'

Tony was used to such methods of cutting inappropriate conversations with anything related to work. It usually meant that Gibbs was around. And that was the case this time. Almost as soon as Kate had finished her sentence, Gibbs and the Director walked past them, not once noticing that they were there.

'Well, _that_ was rude.' Tony commented as they got onto the elevator. Kate hit him lightly.

'You do the same thing!' she told him.

'Do not!' he replied, looking shocked.

'Do too!'

'Do not!'

'You did it before!'

'Did not!' Tony automatically replied before he thought about it. 'Ok, maybe I did, but that's different. Normally, I wouldn't have.'

'Yeah right!'

'I wouldn't have!'

'Would too!'

'Would not!' their voices had grown louder and louder until they were now talking in voice slightly louder than the normal talking one.

'Could you _please_ be quiet?' Agent Lopez snapped at them. Both of their attention turned towards her. They had forgotten she was there. It wasn't something that they were used to.

'Sorry.' Tony whispered before shaking his head in mock disappointment to Kate. 'You should know better Katie!'

'_Me?_' Kate exclaimed, her voice still hushed. 'You're the one that can hardly keep quiet. Ever!'

'Now, you know that's not true, love.' He winked as he got up to grab his gun and badge.

'I don't know _what_ that means, and I don't think I wanna know either!' Kate told him, closing her eyes as if to erase his words.

'I think _someone_ has their mind in the gutter again, Katie-pie!' Tony chortled.

'If you don't shut up, I'll have me heels somewhere _else_.' Kate said suggestively. After 2 years of pissing Kate off and getting her threats, Tony knew exactly what that meant.

'You know you wouldn't carry that threat out, Kate. You have too much to lose.' He laughed as he offered a hand to her to get up.

'Trust me, you're replaceable.' Kate said matter-of-factly. Tony turned to face her with a hand on his heart.

'Ouch, Kate. That hurt!' he exclaimed, pouting and blinking rapidly as if to rid of the tears.

'Whatever!' she pushed him out from behind his desk so that they could get going.

'Bye Tony.' Agent Lopez said, acknowledging him as he left.

'Night Maria.' Tony replied before placing a hand on Kate's back and walking with her to the elevator.

'She doesn't like me.´ Kate mentioned when they got into the metal box.

'Who's that?'

'Agent Lopez. She doesn't like me. Nor does she believe that I'm who I say I am.' Kate rolled her eyes.

'Really? Why not?' Tony asked her.

'I dunno!' Kate exclaimed. 'I guess I offended her in some way. Not like I care.'

'Yeah, right.' Tony mumbled as they stepped off of the elevator on the ground floor.

'I heard that!' Kate snapped. Tony looked at her with a "who me?" look.

'Did I tell you how gorgeous you looked tonight?' Tony commented, changing the subject.

'Um... you_ may_ have mentioned it.' Kate teased him.

'Well, you do. Along with sexy and completely hot!' he held her hand as they got to his car, where he spun her gently as she laughed.

'Thank you, Tony.'

'You're welcome Katie.' Tony replied just as sincerely as Kate had been. He leant in to give her a kiss.

When they broke apart, Tony opened the door to his car to let Kate climb in. As he did, he looked around the parking lot and saw a familiar car parked there. He walked round to the driver's die and got in himself.

'Gibbs' car's still here.' Tony mentioned casually, but the effect was ruined when he wriggled his eyebrows at her.

'It doesn't mean anything.' Kate told him.

'You know it does. I wonder how long it's gonna be there for.' Tony murmured. Kate laughed at his thoughts.

'How about you wonder about how we're gonna get to the restaurant first?' she told him.

'Trust me a little, Kate!' he tsk-ed her. Kate shook her head as Tony pulled up onto the highway.

'Where are we going anyways?' she finally asked him.

'You'll see. It's a surprise.'

'Tony! You know I hate surprises!' Kate moaned.

'Which is why I've done this.' Tony teased her. When she pouted at him, he drew his arm around her shoulders to pull her closer to him. She came willingly; glad to be so close without the cast into the way. Tony was obviously thinking the same thing as he was brushing his hand over her shoulder. 'Does it hurt?'

'Nope.' She sighed, snuggling her head onto his shoulder as he dropped a kiss onto her head.

'All is good?' he asked her.

'All is good.' She sighed contently as she watched Tony take her somewhere she would probably love. All was _definitely_ good.

**And that's the end folks!**

**I would like to thank EVERYONE who stuck with me throughout this story –and Chicken Pox too!**

**I **_**am**_** going to write a sequel. I hope you will read it!**

**Please R&R for the final time and let me know what you thought of the TATE fluff!**

**Tiana xXx**


End file.
